Cheteshwar Pujara ton sets up Sussex as Steven Smith settles for walk-on part
Visitors cash in after captain lays foundations to build 104-run first-innings lead
Paul Edwards05-May-2023
At its best, the batting of Cheteshwar Pujara reminds one of the building of cathedrals. There is a monumental patience about the business, an alliance of forbearance with time that makes any major achievement all the more admirable. There is purpose, too, and aggression where possible, and these qualities were apparent as Pujara made his third century of the season at New Road this afternoon. But above all there was method and a resolve to ride out the mettlesome duels with Worcestershire’s seamers in the morning session, thereby gaining increasing licence to attack them later in the day.The result of Pujara’s tough-minded devotion was plain in the evening session when he put on 117 in 20 overs with Fynn Hudson-Prentice, who made 59, and a further 38 in six with Ollie Robinson, whose 21-ball 33 came straight from the McCullum-Stokes school of tactical thinking. Those partnerships gave Sussex a lead of 104, which was a fine effort given they had been 213 for 6 when Oli Carter had his off stump rumbled by a fine outswinger from Matthew Waite. Pujara eventually fell for 136 to the worst shot of his innings, a tired waft off Josh Tongue, but by then it was testing to recall the first session of the day when he and Steven Smith had worked hard for 75 minutes to put on 61, a partnership that did little but keep their side in the game after Worcestershire had taken two early wickets.Ah yes, Smith, I wondered when we would get to him. Once again, the interest of sports editors had been sufficiently piqued by the near certainty of the Australian batting to send their very best writers to New Road and perhaps Saturday will be another morning on which Smith will be the context for another international cricketer’s fine achievement. But Pujara made over a hundred runs more than his team mate in this innings and it must be a curious world in which one decides what is important about a day’s cricket before one discovers whether it has truly mattered very much.We only had to wait ten balls before we got our chance to assess Smith’s form, for the day had begun in grisly fashion for Sussex, who lost Tom Alsop leg before wicket to Joe Leach’s sixth delivery of the morning when succumbing to the virus of trying to work the ball just in front of square instead of playing it to mid-on. Next over, Ali Orr was dropped by Jack Haynes off Ben Gibbon and then caught by Gareth Roderick three balls later. Those dismissals more or less restored the game to parity and they also brought Smith out to join Pujara, thus uniting two of the best and most contrasting batters in the world.Pujara and Steven Smith bump fists during their partnership•Getty ImagesSmith’s innings of 30 off 57 balls was interesting but unexceptional, although that latter quality will have little to do with the number of column inches it commands on Saturday. This is an Australian summer, after all, and we should be grateful that still matters amid the slew of competitions that pay riches yet count for nowt. So Smith began with a characteristic light-sabre leave and followed it with a sinless forward defensive. There were five fours but they were balanced with about as many false shots, a lovely ease through midwicket off Tongue making up for a swish to an off-side bouncer off Gibbon. The most typical boundary was a pull off Tongue in which Smith’s whole body pivoted on the stroke and the bat made as if to follow the ball to the rope. The innings itself offered glimmers of unconventional greatness but they might have been apparent only to those who knew this batsman had made 30 Test centuries, some of which had defined Ashes series.Anyway, Smith had batted 88 minutes when he faced the final delivery of the innings’ 39th over, which was bowled by Tongue from the Diglis End. The ball seamed back and hit Smith just above the knee-roll of his pad in line with middle and leg stump at best. Peter Hartley’s decision to give the batsman out was therefore neither a near-formality nor a shocker. In a Test match, the batter would surely have reviewed the decision and the technology might well have suggested umpire’s call. There was, though, an equal chance that Smith would have got away with it.Tongue was untroubled by such speculation. He gave the dismissal a double salute with his clenched fists and was quickly mobbed by his delighted colleagues. Before lunch, James Coles’ ten-cent drive to a ball from Gibbon saw him caught behind for 14 and Worcestershire supporters’ enjoyment of their lunch might then have been enhanced by New Road’s gracious assumption of its May splendour. The horse chestnut in front of the corporate hospitality marquee has been giving it large on the catwalk for a couple of weeks but now the poplars, limes and beeches at the Diglis End and in front of the cathedral are also buying their new-season frocks.The ruthlessness of Pujara’s batting frequently punctures such blithe optimism. During his stand with Smith, he had already eased the ball backward of square off his legs and played a cover drive. Both strokes outshone his partner. Either side of a 45-minute break for rain, he now added back cuts and pulls that took the game away from Worcestershire, one or two of whose bowlers suffered under the strain of it all. Pujara has now reached fifty for Sussex eight times in two-and-a-bit seasons and on each occasion he has gone on to make a century. Nor were his delights quite over. Eight balls before bad light interrupted play deep into evensong, he moved himself to sixth slip and next ball he grabbed a thick-edged catch off Jake Libby, a cricketer whose adhesion is his trademark. Ed Pollock and Azhar Ali took their side safely to stumps, which were finally drawn past seven o’clock, but there is serious work ahead for Brett D’Oliveira’s top order this weekend.