India vs Bangladesh: Murali Vijay continues good form, slams ninth Test hundred
Murali Vijay scored a brilliant century against Bangladesh to put India in command against Bangladesh in the one-off Test match in Hyderabad.
India opener Murali Vijay kept his reputation of scoring big in the first innings intact and got to his ninth century after steering one to deep point for three runs on the first day of the one-off Test against Bangladesh in Hyderabad on Thursday. (LIVE BLOG)
Murali Vijay, along with Cheteshwar Pujara, stabilised the innings after India had lost KL Rahul early. The two added 178 runs before Pujara was dismissed for 83. (LIVE SCORE)
Vijay gained in confidence after surviving a testing spell from Bangladeshi pacers, especially Taskin Ahmed, in the initial phase and began playing shots as the wicket started to ease after the first hour. While Pujara looked edgy, with one of his shots flying to the fence past gully and another fallinh short of slip, Vijay provided stability. His first boundary could come only at the end of the eighth over with an attempted pull going down to fine leg fence. He didn’t look in control of that shot.
The Tamil Nadu opener, who hit 11 fours and a six in his century knock, plucked most of his runs off seamer Kamrul Hasan Rabbi and left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan while playing out Taskin and offie Mehedi Hasan quite watchfully.
Once the wicket eased following the first hour, the opener began to look confident, although he survived a close run-out call when his personal score was 35 and the team score on 66. He was lucky that the bowler Mehedi Hasan Miraz couldn’t collect the throw from Kamrul Islam Rabbi and messed it up. Vijay got to his 50 off 82 deliveries with seven hits to the fence. He then stepped on the gas and hammered Shakib for a boundary and six off successive deliveries in the 41st over.
In the previous Test series against England, Vijay had scored two hundreds, 126 in the first Test at Rajkot and 136 in the fourth Test at Mumbai. While he had struggled in the other ones, he suffered injury in the final Test which pushed lower down the order where he managed 29.