Every knock is important: Vijay

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Murali Vijay scored a timely hundred in the Irani Cup to strengthen his case for Test berth. The Tamil Nadu batsman opened the innings for Rest of India and scored an attractive 116 against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday.

“It was a big game for me. My motivation level was very high. I wanted to give it my best shot,” said Vijay after the end of first day’s play. He was in the Test squad against England earlier, but didn’t get a game.
“Every knock is important,” he added in response to the timing of the knock, coming just ahead of the home Test series against Australia starting on February 22.
Vijay, who scored career best 266 for Rest of India against Rajasthan last September, underlined his affinity for the Irani Cup on the day. “Whenever I get an opportunity I will try to make the most of it,” he said.
Considering Mumbai are a batting-heavy side, Vijay admitted they had to score big. “They have a strong batting line-up. We will try to bat them out.”
Rest of India’s openers Murali and Shikhar Dhawan were watchful initially but played their shots later to dominate the bowling.
“There was something happening in the game in the first hour. It could have gone either way. Once we got in we decided to play percentage cricket instead of just hanging around,” Vijay observed.
Mumbai coach Sulakshan Kulkarni defended his bowlers. “Initially yes in patches we didn’t bowl well but overall we bowled well. Having them 330/5 is not bad on this wicket, at least we got five wickets,” he said.
“Shardul (Thakur) and Javed (Khan) are youngsters, they bowled reasonably well and need to be groomed,” Kulkarni added. Kulkarni praised skipper Abhishek Nayar for chipping in with crucial wickets. “Nayar has the knack of getting good batsmen out. He is experienced and sets up the batsmen. The way he set up (Manoj) Tiwary is his hall mark. He has dismissed Tiwary 4-5 times now,” he added.