London, Apr 8 (IANS): While his India teammates are busy plying their trade in the slam-bang T20I cricket appearing for various Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises, seasoned India Test batter Cheteshwar Pujara struck a brilliant century batting for Sussex in the County Championship in England.

Pujara, who has taken over the captaincy on an interim basis following an injury to Tom Haine, scored a superb 163-ball 115 in the first innings for Sussex against Durham in a four-day clash at The 1st Central County Ground, Hove. This was his first century for his county club after being given the captaincy.

The right-hander batter anchored Sussex's innings with a century as they posted 335 all out in response to Durham's first innings score of 376 all out built on a solid opening stand of 142 runs between AZ Lees (79) and MA Jones (87). G Clark (47) and BS McKinney (35) were the other major contributors to Durham's score as NJ McAndrew claimed 5-65.

Pujara was the mainstay of Sussex's batting as he struck his sixth hundred for the County, preparing for the upcoming World Test Championship Final against Australia at The Oval in June.

After his century, Pujara told the club's social media team that he is happy with the way things have gone so far and hoped to carry on in the same manner in the remaining matches before the WTC final.

"As a batter, when you start well, you feel confident. I hope to carry on from here and keep scoring runs throughout the season, It was an important knock for the team as well. We could still have batted a bit better, but we are still not too far behind," Pujara said in a video posted by Sussex.

Pujara, who was the highest scorer for Sussex in the County Championship last season, said stitching together a partnership was important considering Sussex had lost early wickets.