Dhruv Jurel in action (Source: Dhurv Jurel's Instagram)
Dhruv Jurel smashed his maiden List A century on Monday (December 29) during Uttar Pradesh’s Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Baroda at Sanosara Cricket Ground A, Rajkot. In the process, it overshadowed the impeccable consistency of Rinku Singh, who made 63 off 63 balls while captaining the UP side.
Coming to this fixture, Jurel made 67 and 80 against Chadigarh and Hyderabad, respectively. Rinku too was in red-hot form, having scored 67 against Hyderabad and an unbeaten 106 against Chandigarh. However, given the fact that it was Jurel’s maiden hundred in List A format, Rinku’s superb patch in 50-over format won’t be the talk of the town, at least for a while.
Uttar Pradesh on top against Baroda in VHT
Batting first, UP got a decent start against Baroda, racing to 77 in 14.1 overs before Aryan Juyal fell to Raj Limbani, who picked up excellent figures of 4/74. Opener Abhishek Goswami made an important contribution as well, making a run-a-ball 51 with seven fours and two sixes.
To give them a solid finish, Prashant Veer, who recently made headlines after picking up a lucrative IPL contract from CSK in the last auction, played an excellent cameo (35 off 23 balls). Eventually, UP finished with 369/7, with Jurel making an unbeaten 160 off 101 balls, laced with 15 fours and eight sixes.
Still no Dhruv Jurel supremacy for India!
Thus far, Jurel has played in T20Is and Tests for India, with the latter being potentially projected as his go-to format. However, the Rajasthan Royals keeper-batter is yet to flourish at his full flow in national colours, having made 459 runs across nine Tests at an average of around 35 and 12 runs in three T20I innings, speaking volumes.
However, given the fact that Jurel is now in sublime form in 50-over format, don’t be surprised if the 24-year-old gets a fast-forward ODI call-up before shining there for the Men in Blue.
