Irani trophy: Belligerent Vijay stakes claim
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The script on Day 2 of the Irani Cup went very much on expected lines — bat dominating the ball with Rajasthan at the receiving end.
Rest of India are in line for an encore of a drubbing of their same opponents from the last edition, reaching 328/2, a lead of 75 runs at stumps here on Saturday.
With a sepulchral silence enveloping the stadium with very few takers for the match, the RoI top-order batsmen did all the talking with the willow.
No-one was louder than Murali Vijay, who staked claim for a Test return with an unconquered 257-ball 151 (18x4, 5x6).
In a batting display that spoke volumes about his temperament, a perennial target for his critics, opener Vijay racked up two impressive stands with Ajinkya Rahane (81, 143b, 209m, 12x4) and skipper Cheteshwar Pujara (78, 140b, 11x4, 1x6) to tire down the Rajasthan bowlers, some of whom even opted for a negative line of attack late into the day.
Vijay restrained himself from committing silly mistakes throughout and was particularly ruthless punishing off-spinner Madhur Khatri for four sixes.
His high back-lift looked the sole uncommon factor as Vijay and opening mate Rahane matched each other stroke to stroke while mixing fire and ice with Ă©lan.
The Rajasthan pace trio of Deepak Chahar, Aniket Chaudhary and Sumit Mathur bowled too many balls up and the two reputed stroke-makers patiently waited for the freebies.
Both preferred the copybook cover drives and the full-blade straight-drives against the pacers and rocked back to cut whenever the left-arm spinner Gajendra Singh and Khatri pitched it short outside the off-stump.
At lunch, RoI were 127/0 and the duo looked hungry for more. Given the lack of ammunition in the rival attack and drooping shoulders in the field, it seemed Rajasthan would again give away another record opening-wicket stand in Irani history, after the 310-run alliance between Abhinav Mukund and Shikhar Dhawan last year.
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