Hosts’ assault floors visitors

Bengaluru, Oct. 11: Opener Murali Vijay seems to be unfazed by situations. The Chennai batsman has been made to play a waiting game ever since he earned a surprise call-up to the Indian team against Australia two years ago, mid-way through a domestic match.

Since then, Vijay has been more of a replacement option, than a first-choice player. Even in the ongoing second Test match against Australia, Vijay found a place in the eleven after Gautam Gambhir was ruled out due to a knee injury.

But Monday’s maiden Test century from the 26-year-old will force the team management to take notice of the right-hander, who has only got better with international exposure. Indeed, Gambhir will take his place when he comes back, but Vijay’s fighting century would have given the Indian side more options in the coming matches. “I try to keep it simple. The goal is to try and contribute to the team whichever way possible,” said Vijay, before dedicating the special knock to his mother.

“After the tea session, I got tired. I didn’t want to give my wicket away but ended up playing a bad shot. I am trying to just work on my basics. Whenever I get my opportunities I want to do well for the country,” Vijay added.

Vijay’s 308-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar was a tribute to the grit shown by the duo, after the team was in a precarious position on Sunday, struggling at 38/2. But Vijay, who was in awe of Tendulkar, credited the batting maestro for guiding him through the nervous nineties. “I am living my dream now. He (Tendulkar) is my childhood hero and batting with him is just unbelievable. It is a great honour for me to play with him and I have learnt a lot of things. I was just focused on each ball and was not trying to think too far ahead. In that regard, Sachin paaji helped me a lot. He gave me pep-talks through the day,” Vijay said.

Meanwhile, pacer Mitchell Johnson, who dismissed Vijay and debutant Cheteshwar Pujara, said all is not lost for the Australians and that they would go all out on Day Four.

“We stuck to our plans and there were couple of occasions when we did not execute well. That worked in their favour. But in the end we got three wickets and we are still ahead on the scoreboard. If we get a couple of quick wickets on Tuesday morning, we will probably get the lead and then try to make a match out of it,” Johnson said.

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