In the last three years, Murali Vijay has established himself as a regular in the Indian Test team through some pretty useful contributions with the bat. In the ongoing Test series against England, Vijay is the fourth highest run scorer amongst both teams with 328 runs, averaging 46.85 with two centuries – first in the Test at Rajkot and then in the recently concluded fourth Test at Mumbai.
In this article, we take a look at one of Vijay’s finest Test knocks which came nearly two years from today.
Between the twilight of 2014 and the onset of 2015, India were touring Australia for a four-match Test series. The day was 17th of December, 2014 and it was a bright shiny morning at the Gabba in Brisbane where the second Test was to be played.
India were coming at the back of a 48-run defeat in the first Test at Adelaide where stand-in captain Virat Kohli played a fearless knock of 141 off 175 deliveries in the run-chase which the now-skipper himself states to be the “best Test innings he ever played”.
Indian skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first on a batting-friendly pitch at Brisbane. Both of India’s openers, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan had contrasting performances in the first Test. While Vijay fared well with scores of 53 and 99 in both innings, Dhawan failed to capitalize on his swift starts and scored 25 and 9 in both innings.
India were off to a good start with Vijay hitting boundaries and Dhawan dealing in ones and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking. The duo put up an opening stand of 56 before Dhawan failed to capitalize on another steady start as a short and wide delivery from Mitch Marsh found a top edge to land in the safe hands of keeper Brad Haddin.
Vijay was then joined by Pujara at the crease and the run-rate began to slow down but the duo were able to stay at the crease until lunch with the scoreboard reading 89/1. In the first over of the second session, Vijay reached his third successive half-century of the series through a beautifully executed cover drive.
Soon, India’s run rate began to slow down even more as Pujara was deploying a completely defensive style of play. However, he soon became debutant Josh Hazlewood’s first Test scalp as he was controversially given out by umpire Ian Gould after a bouncer from Hazlewood went to Haddin after clipping off his helmet’s right grille.
In came an in-form Virat Kohli but he couldn’t assist Vijay for long as he was dismissed for 19 by Hazlewood and Haddin took the catch after the extra bounce resulted in Kohli thickly edging the ball into the keeper’s gloves. Vijay finally got some assistance at the crease in Ajinkya Rahane.
The duo stayed put till tea as India were on 151/3 with Vijay batting on 73. After tea, India started off quickly with Vijay dealing in boundaries as he reached his fifth Test hundred, his fourth against Australia, his second overseas and his first in Australia. Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly had also scored his first Test century in Australia at the Gabba.
Rahane gradually began to settle on the crease and the duo kept the scoreboard ticking mainly through boundaries and not taking too many risks. However, the 124-run partnership was finally broken by Hazlewood again, as he got the crucial wicket of Vijay.
The Tamil Nadu batsman ended his innings on 144. His first century in Australia resembled a lot to that of Ganguly’s as both achieved this feat at Gabba, both scored 144, none of them hit a single six; Ganguly had hit 18 boundaries while Vijay hit 22.
Rahane couldn’t stay on the crease for long and returned to the pavilion after scoring 81. The remainder of the Indian middle-order could not hold the innings much longer with Rohit Sharma, Dhoni, and Ravichandran Ashwin chipping in with scores of 32, 33, and 35 respectively.
India eventually ended their innings on 408 as Hazlewood had a memorable debut, picking up five wickets for 68 in 23.2 overs at an impressive economy of 2.91.
In reply, Australia made 505, thanks to a remarkable 133 from new skipper Steve Smith in addition to useful lower order contributions from Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc who made 88 and 52 respectively at a quick rate.
In the second innings, India were bowled out for 224, leaving Australia to chase down a meagre 128 to win the match which they eventually won by four wickets with Mitchell Marsh finishing the game with a beautiful cover drive.
Steve Smith was awarded the Man of the Match for his innings of 133. However, Murali Vijay’s 144 was a classy effort from the opener and it will definitely be an innings that Vijay would be proud to call “one of his best”.
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