[WATCH] “Pleased to contribute to the team’s win tonight”- Cheteshwar Pujara’s daughter Aditi’s reaction is winning the Internet

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Aditi couldn't stop herself from dancing after another Pujara ton in county cricket. Pic credits: ChP1v3Nqps4/Instagram]

Cheteshwar Pujara once again surprised his fans with his hard-hitting abilities on Sunday and gave multiple reasons to put a smile on their faces. The Sussex captain turned into beast mode as he smashed 174 runs in 131 balls against Surrey in a Royal London One-Day Cup match on Sunday, at Hove.

The long-serving member of the Indian Test side, who has been regarded as ill-suited to the shorter formats, slammed five sixes and 20 fours while guiding his side to victory.

Unsurprisingly, the Saurashtra batsman quickly became a Superman for his daughter Aditi, who was watching her father's heroics in the stadium.

In a video shared by Pujara on Instagram, Aditi could be seen dancing and cheering her father as he returned to the dressing room after taking the Surrey bowlers to the cleaners. Sharing the post, the Indian batsman wrote:

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“Pleased to contribute to the team’s win tonight. Great play by the entire team @SussexCCC. We move onto the next one on a high note.”

Pujara’s special innings and Tom Clark’s century helped Sussex recover from early losses which put them in a precarious position at 9/2. The duo shared a partnership of 205 runs for the third wicket as their team scored 378/6 in 50 overs.

In reply, a clinical bowling performance from Sussex saw Surrey bowled out for just 162.

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Cheteshwar Pujara's purple patch

India Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara has been in a rich vein of form for Sussex in this country season. He had earlier slammed 107 runs in 79 balls against Warwickshire on Saturday, which featured him smashing 22 runs in an over.

His innings comprised seven boundaries and a couple of sixes. He has so far amassed 367 runs in five innings at an average of 91.75 in the English domestic 50-over tournament.

He had earlier racked up 1,094 runs in eight matches at an average of 109.4 for Sussex in the County Championship Division Two, where he slammed three double centuries and a couple of hundreds.

While Pujara's prolificity in the first-class format isn't that big a surprise, his exploits in the 50-over format will get the Indian selectors thinking about the possibility of bringing him into the ODI set-up for India.

So far, in his career, Pujara has played for India in just five ODIs. He managed only 51 runs from those matches at a paltry average of 10.20. His last ODI appearance was in 2014, against Bangladesh in Mirpur.

It won't be easy for the right-hander to break into the current Indian batting line-up in the ODIs due to the abundance of talent. However, his solidity as a batsman just might keep the Indian team management interested ahead of the 2023 ODI World Cup.

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