Vijay’s opening gig a success

The 28-year-old Vijay’s unbeaten 151 along with the 24-year-old Rahane’s 81 and captain Cheteshwar Pujara’s 78 on Day Two guided ROI to 328 for two – a lead of 75 runs. But the Tamil Nadu batsman will need to keep going on Sunday in order to arrest his fall,which has been perhaps as spectacular as his rise.

In 2008,he was drawn out of the Tamil Nadu Ranji team and shoehorned into the Test XI against Australia under fortuitous circumstances: to replace Gautam Gambhir who was banned for a match after he had elbowed Shane Watson. And he did himself no discredit by scoring 74 promising runs in two innings.

One year later against Sri Lanka in Mumbai,Vijay again replaced the prolific Gambhir — who had skipped the third match to attend his sister’s wedding —and cemented this position by scoring 87 in a momentous win which put India atop the Test perch.

An aggressive batsman who can play a wide range of shots,Vijay extended his reputation beyond Tests as well,playing a key role in Chennai Super Kings rise to the top. Till date,he is the only Indian batsman to have scored two IPL centuries.

But the IPL fame is notorious for quickly going to a player’s head and leaving him with his priorities mixed up — he scored heavily in the T20 tournament while his international performance suffered. There were questions about his attitude too.

And in two years,after two disastrous tours to South Africa and the West Indies,he was replaced by his fellow Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund for the 2011 England tour.

By September that year,Rahane also threw his hat in the ring with two half centuries against England in the limited-overs leg.

Solid platform

Now,after an unremarkable Ranji season last year where he scored 558 runs in 15 innings (Mukund scored 872),Vijay has fallen third in line for the third opener’s slot — behind Rahane and Mukund. And it came to pass on Saturday that Vijay and Rahane were batting opposite each other,for a common cause: to give ROI a solid platform in reply to Rajasthan’s 253. A big knock for Rahane would have pushed his case further,while a slip-up by Vijay would see him slide further into oblivion. Vijay not only had to score,but also outscore Rahane just to keep pace with him.

Both their tasks were made easier by a Rajasthan attack that was anything but attacking and a pitch that offered no assistance to the Ranji champions’ spinners. To make things worse,Rajasthan’s medium pace department was seriously depleted with the spearhead Deepak Chahar hobbling off with a knee injury. When he did bowl,he resembled Praveen Kumar in slow-mo — his pace often dropping to 104 and five — and was duly creamed by the duo.

At all times it looked like no one could get the duo out but themselves. And sure enough,they did. The partnership ended at 173 after a mix-up left both Rahane and Vijay at the non-stiker’s end,and Madhur Khatri’s throw to the keeper cut short the former’s innings at 81.

In the aforementioned movie, Miller,on his way up,blows a kiss at Valentin who catches it and keeps it in his pocket. Unlike that exchange,this meeting ended with Rahane blaming Vijay for the run-out before walking away in frustration. With stakes so high,there is no love lost.

scorecard: Rajasthan Ist innings 253; Rest of India Ist innings: A Rahane run out 81,M Vijay (not out) 151,C Pujara c Yagnik b Choudhary 78,S Badrinath (not out) 1; Extras (b 4,lb 2,w 5,nb 6) 17; Total: (2 wickets; 91 overs) 328; FoW: 1-173,2-326; Bowling: A Choudhary 19-5-57-1,D Chahar 12.1-1-53-0,S Mathur 15.5-2-51-0,G Singh 24-2-79-0,M Khatri 19-1-72-0,V Saxena 1-0-10-0