Saurasthra batsman Cheteshwar Pujara replacing Rahul Dravid in the team has hit his maiden Test century to put India in a commanding position on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand in Hyderabad on Thursday. <\/p>\n
According to a report in The Times of India<\/strong>, Pujara unbeaten knock of 119 took the hosts to 307 for five at the close after winning the toss. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (29) was the other not-out batsman. <\/p>\n Batting at the number three spot earlier held by Rahul Dravid, Pujara showed a cool temperament akin to his predecessor and hit 15 fours and a six during his 226-ball innings. He also added 125 for the fourth wicket with Virat Kohli (58) to help India overcome the loss of Gautam Gambhir (22), Virender Sehwag (47) and Sachin Tendulkar (19).<\/p>\n Pujara who was lucky to survive a close caught behind call towards the end of the innings, also shared an unbroken sixth wicket partnership for 47 runs with Dhoni.<\/p>\n India, beaten in eight consecutive away tests in England and Australia last year, lost Gambhir and Sehwag in the morning session and batting great Tendulkar after lunch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saurasthra batsman Cheteshwar Pujara replacing Rahul Dravid in the team has hit his maiden Test century to put India in a commanding position on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand in Hyderabad on Thursday. According to a report in The Times of India, Pujara unbeaten knock of 119 took the hosts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers"],"yoast_head":"\n