India warm up match: KL Rahul cracks sublime century against County Select XI, Ravindra Jadeja scores 75

Durham, July 20: India batsman KL Rahul warmed up nicely ahead of the five-Test series against England as the right-handed batsman cracked a sublime century on day one of the practice match against ECB's County Select XI at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street in Durham on Tuesday (July 20).

The Karnataka cricketer walked into the middle at number four after India's top-three were dismissed cheaply under 25 overs. The Rohit Sharma-led Indian side had a disastrous start with their top three - Rohit (9), Mayank Agarwal (28) and Cheteshwar Pujara (21) - all getting dismissed after spending some time at the crease.

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Rahul who is playing in the three-day match - which is awarded the first-class status - as a wicketkeeper-batsman had to walk in early and started batting with caution along with Hanuma Vihari. After the lunch break, Vihari too perished early.

The right-handed batsman then was joined by all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and together the duo steadied the ship with a century partnership and revived Indian innings.

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Rahul - who last played a first-class match 16 months ago - for his state team Karnataka against Bengal in Ranji Trophy semi-final in March 2020 impressed with his batting effort. He first notched up his fifty off 75 deliveries and later converted it into a century off 145 balls.

His century against in Durham was Rahul's 15th first-class ton for Indians against a county side. Rahul's last first-class century came off 149 deliveries and it also came on English soil in the Oval Test in September 2018.

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Rahul was retired out for 101 (150 balls) soon after getting to the milestone. His knock was laced with 11 boundaries and a six. Meanwhile, his partner Jadeja too played a fine knock as he scored 75 off 146 deliveries. The Rajkot batsman was also looking in sublime touch and batted for 183 minutes and smashed five boundaries and a maximum.