The duo of Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohammad Rizwan enjoyed an excellent partnership during Day 3 of Sussex’s match against Durham in the County Championships on Saturday. Pujara, who has been in excellent touch since the beginning of his stint with Sussex, racked up his second double-century for the side, scoring 203 off 334 deliveries, and forged a 154-run stand with Rizwan, who also scored an important 79 off 145 balls.
Ahead of the action on Day 3, Sussex shared a video of the Indo-Pakistan duo preparing for the training session ahead of the scheduled start. As Pujara geared up to bat, he was seen having a conversation with Rizwan.
Take a look at the video:
The conversation isn’t entirely audible, but it did seem Rizwan was talking to Pujara about his previous County stint.
The fans on Twitter, meanwhile, took turns to decode the exact conversation between the pair.
The senior India player was batting overnight on 107, which helped his side take a substantial lead against Durham, who were all out for 223 in their first innings. Thanks to Pujara’s effort, Sussex extended their dominance on the third day of the match, their innings ending at 538 for a massive lead of 315 runs.
With Sussex enforcing follow-on, Durham were 38 for no loss in their second essay, still trailing by 277 runs.
The out-of-favour India batter, who is in sparkling form, is making most of his county stint. He now has scored two hundreds and as many double centuries in his five innings.
Making his debut for Sussex, Pujara had scored 6 and an unbeaten 201 to help his side draw the match against Derbyshire.
In Sussex’s innings-and-34-run loss to Worcestershire, he scored 109 in the first innings, followed by 12 in the second essay.
The big runs will keep Pujara in contention for a place in the Indian squad when they travel to England for the postponed fifth Test later this year.
