Vijay's 266 powers ROI to 354-run lead

Murali Vijay struck a magnificent double ton as Rest of India stretched their lead to a mammoth 354 runs against a hapless Rajasthan on Day 3 of Irani Cup.

BANGALORE: For the second day running, Murali Vijay hogged the limelight. Batting with absolute authority, the stylish right-handed opener went past one mark after the other en route to his big double century to put Rest of India in total control of the Irani Cup tie against Rajasthan on a hot Sunday. At close on Day Three, Ranji Trophy defending champions Rajasthan, having conceded a massive 354-run first innings lead, after RoI mercifully declared with 607 for 7, were battling to extend the match, finishing on 43 for the loss of opener Ankit Lamba, out to a peach of an away swinger from Ishant Sharma.
The day though was clearly all about Vijay. It was by far his longest tenure at the crease (618 minutes), he's never faced as many ball before this (394) and his eventual 266 was not just his highest first class score but also bettered the Irani individual best of 246 by Pravin Amre, ironically at this very venue. But, statistics are not Vijay's real calling. If not for the right amount of grace in his free-flowing strokeplay, the temptation would have been to term it arrogance. The manner in which he moved from his overnight 151 to his third first class double in a matter of 52 deliveries in the morning, and with as many as nine spanking fours, the last of which brought up his 200, would have killed whatever hope Rajasthan would have had of making a match of it.
If not for Vijay, who in all had 36 fours and 6 sixes to his credit, cricket would have been a loser on the day. So banal were the proceedings otherwise, with all the other Rest batsman scratching around against an attack that was just about honest and on a wicket that continued to play true, save perhaps for a ball or two that kept a trifle low, one of which accounted for S Badrinath and the other local lad Stuart Binny.
Perhaps, given that Vijay had ensured that the match situation had become totally onesided, it was difficult for the others to raise their game, more so as the opposing bowlers were hardly posing a challenge. And so the efforts of Badrinath (55, 158m, 124b, 7x4) and the ones to follow Dinesh Karthik (56, 151m, 104b, 10x4) and Wriddhimann Saha (29 not out, 99m, 77b, 2x4, 1x6) looked laboured.

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