By: Sandipan Bose
For quite some time, India’s opener Murali Vijay has not be firing on all cylinders. Everyone seemed to have been worried over his form except the Indian team management.
His team not only backed him to prove his worth, but also predicted that a big knock from Vijay’s bat was just round the corner. Ultimately, the team management’s gambit paid off.
In reply to England’s first innings score of 400 in the fourth Test match in Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium, India’s top-order responded with some positive batting, which was led by Vijay.
Read More: England Post Healthy First Innings Total
Read More: Murali Vijay Leads India’s Strong Reply
Yes, he did take 169 deliveries to make a well-composed unbeaten 70 on Day Two of the Test, but his knock eventually lifted the side. Eventually, he was batting as if he never had a bad patch.
With an impressive high back-lift, he batted with utmost ease and wasn’t in a hurry to score. He also had all the time in the world and is looking good to complete his eighth Test century of his career.
The fact that he did the initial hard word, it’s time that Vijay reaps the benefit and gets to his century. It will be a perfect way to complement the hard work he did in the middle.
India also benefitted from the fact that Vijay could get those runs at the top of the order after his opening partner KL Rahul failed convert his start into a big one. One-down batsman Cheteshwar Pujara was again impressive and still on the crease with Vijay.
It will be interesting to see how they start the Indian innings on Day Three. With plenty of turn and bounce from the Wankhede pitch, India would be in a hurry to score and take a slender lead, at least, before handing over the bat to England.
