Playing new-ball is a challenge for any opener in Australia and when the match is in Brisbane the job just gets tougher. No so much for Murali Vijay, who loves facing the Australians, as the India opener smashed a scintillating century on the opening day at Gabba.
Vijay was in the class of his own, just like the previous match, but this time he made no mistake in getting to that magical triple figures fourth time against the Australians. The Tamil Nadu opener also made the top-score by a visiting opener in first innings in Brisbane.
India, batting first in Gabba, survived the morning session when the Australian pacers were on song. Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan stitched a 56-run partnership to give India a solid start, the latter couldn’t survive till lunch.
Heading into the lunch on Day 1, India lost only Dhawan (24), who was dismissed by Mitchell Marsh. Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, however, didn’t allow the hosts to take any more wickets as India left the field at 89/1 at lunch.
Australia came back strongly in the second session by taking wickets of Pujara (18) and last match centurion Virat Kohli (19). Both wickets were taken by debutant Josh Hazlewood, who was the pick of the bowlers.
Vijay, meanwhile, continued playing his shots as the touring party maintained a healthy run-rate throughout. He, along with Ajinkya Rahane, took the Indian innings forward, as India did not lost any more wickets in the post-lunch session.
The visitors dominated the third session with Vijay completing his fifth Test century, while Rahane also cruising to a fifty. Vijay, however, couldn’t see stumps as Nathan Lyon dismissed him on 144, when he was caught by Brad Haddin behind the stumps.
Despite losing Vijay late in the day, India were at top by the end of day’s play and posted 311 runs, with Rahane (75 not out) and Rohit Sharma (26 not out) have already made an unbeaten 50-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
