Murali Vijay made Australia’s bowlers toil in the brutal Brisbane heat with a defiant century as India frolicked in the second Test at The Gabba yesterday.
Vijay profited from two dropped catches by Shaun Marsh to score his fourth Test century against Australia and his first in the country, putting the tourists in a commanding position after the opening day.
The Chennai right-hander, cruelly out for 99 in the Adelaide series opener, made it look easy on a Gabba pitch where Australia have remained unconquered for 26 years.
Photo: AFP
Vijay was out late in the day, caught behind off spinner Nathan Lyon for 144 — equaling Sourav Ganguly’s 2003 knock as the highest score by an India player at The Gabba.
“Today was really hot and was testing us all. As a batsman I could see a lot of bowlers sulking out there because it was really hot,” Vijay said. “The [post-tea] session was really important for us and I thought a lot of people on their team were getting tired. I wanted to wait until that time and make use of it.”
Vijay batted for 332 minutes and faced 213 balls with 22 fours. He put on 124 with Ajinkya Rahane for the fourth wicket.
At the close India were 311-4, with Rahane unbeaten on 75 and Rohit Sharma not out 26.
The century continued Vijay’s impressive start to the four-match series with scores of 53 and 99 in India’s 48-run defeat in the first Test.
He was helped along the way by two chances put down by Shaun Marsh on 36 and 102, both off Mitchell Johnson’s bowling.
It was a sorry day in the field for Australia, with both new pacemen Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc having fitness problems in the heat and a third bowler, Mitchell Marsh, off the field with hamstring trouble.
“I thought the first session was OK, the second session very good, third session very poor,” Australia coach Darren Lehmann said. “It was very hot, and we understand that as a group and a team, but we’ve got to be better than that in the last session.”
Vijay’s dominance came after India had their third bad umpire’s call in the series with the dubious dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara.
Pujara appeared to be caught off the grille of his helmet 40 minutes after lunch and was sent on his way by English umpire Ian Gould for 18.
Pujara attempted to sway out of the way of a Hazlewood bouncer and his gloves went up to shield his face, only for the ball to come off the grille to Brad Haddin.
Pujara stood at the wicket, before leaving shaking his head at the umpire’s decision, which followed dubious calls suffered by Shikhar Dhawan and Rahane in the first Test.
India appear to be paying for their refusal to use the Decision Review System in Test cricket over accuracy fears.
Paceman Hazlewood, playing in his debut Test, grabbed the key wicket of Virat Kohli for 19 in the 45th over, giving Brad Haddin his third catch of the innings.
Kohli, who was outstanding in Adelaide with a century in each innings, attempted to cut, but was beaten by the extra bounce and edged to the wicketkeeper.
It was a tough first day for new skipper Steve Smith as his bowlers failed to press on after having the tourists on 137-3 halfway through the day.
Smith’s situation was not helped by Mitchell Marsh’s right-hamstring injury just after lunch.
Dhawan’s was the only wicket to fall in the morning session and it was all-rounder Marsh who made the breakthrough.
Marsh claimed his first Test victim when Dhawan slashed away from his body and top-edged to Haddin for 24.
Marsh pulled up in pain after bowling his sixth over and left the field.
India have not won in five Tests at The Gabba, while Australia have not lost at the ground since a nine-wicket defeat to a Viv Richards-led West Indies team in 1988.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier