Vijay laps up day out
Having cracked his second successive Test century in Hyderabad and being involved in a 178-run stand with Cheteshwar Pujara, their ninth, opener Murali Vijay can easily count the Saurashtra batsman as his best batting pal. “We really enjoyed each other’s company out there in the middle and he has a solid game. He makes things easy for me and we both share a good rapport and that makes it easy inside,” Vijay said of Pujara. However, on Thursday they were lucky to avoid a runout dismissal arising out of serious misunderstanding at the wicket. “We need to work on that, if I would have been out, it would’ve been a different conversation with him,” he laughs. Speaking about their chemistry, the 32-year-old said: “We are totally different characters in the dressing room because we don’t think the same way but once we go in the middle, we enjoy the company and enjoy each other’s success. He’s a great player. It’s an honour to move along with him and pick his brains.” Vijay said he had his role cut out. “As I am playing one format of the game at the moment, I have got a decent idea about it and hang of it. I wanted to give as many consistent starts as possible, ready for my opportunity in other two formats as well,” he said. Speaking about the technical changes, he said: “To be honest I was feeling good about my game coming into the series. I just saw the new ball for four-five overs, read the wicket, and then thought I could play my shots and it came out my way today. Hopefully, I can carry that forward.” Vijay was also all praise for captain Virat Kohli, who smashed an unbeaten 111. “It’s always a great sight to see Virat play. He has taken his game to a different level at the moment,” he said. He was impressed by the acceleration towards the end of the day. “End of the day you can see we are 356 and I thought 340 would be great. The 10-20 runs extra just happened because of him... the way he was striking the ball was fantastic. After the new ball was taken it (the scoring) was faster I guess. And I think he has a gameplan set. Hope he can continue like this tomorrow,” Vijay said.