Murali Vijay continues excellent form with hundred

Sport360 staff 08:51 13/06/2015
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  • Excellent knock: Vijay.

    Opener Murali Vijay continued his excellent run in the longest form of the game, scoring his sixth Test century against Bangladesh but after another rain-affected day in Fatullah, the opener admitted he struggled during large parts of the innings.

    “I was not batting at my best, to be honest. My priority was not to give my wicket away, tire the fast bowlers and cash in when their four spinners operate. It is difficult to bat between breaks but you have to be up for it as a professional,” Vijay said after the day’s play.

    Elaborating on the difficulty of batting in between numerous rain breaks, and also losing the entire second day’s play, Vijay said the key was to bat for long periods whenever the opportunity arrived.

    “We can’t do much about weather, it is not in our hands. All we (Dhawan and him) planned to do was to play throughout day two but sadly no play was possible. We are in a good position and hopefully we can do something special in the remaining two days.

    “The wicket was good to bat on initially and then it became slower so I had to adjust a bit. Shikhar gave a brilliant start so I just wanted to hang in there and play for as long as possible,” he added.

    Asked whether he was thinking about a possible maiden double century, the Chennai batsman said: “I was not thinking too far ahead. I was just thinking of pushing the score beyond 500 because I knew rain was coming. I picked up the wrong ball to play that shot (to get dismissed).”

    The batsman also expected Indian spinners Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin to do well.

    “They both are different type of spin bowlers and it is good for us. The wicket is deteriorating and it is going to help them,” added Vijay.

    Meanwhile, Bangladesh left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan was confident his team can bat well over the last two days to save the game.

    “India don’t have anything to lose and they will come hard at us, but we have to bat well for six sessions and score a lot of runs,” he said.

    “There is no problem with the pitch. If the wicket stays like this we can handle the Indian bowling.”

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