Australia vs India: Mitchell Starc's booming inswinger disturbs Murali Vijay's timber

Vijay bagged yet another duck.

Published - 15 Dec 2018, 10:53 IST | Updated - 15 Dec 2018, 10:53 IST

2 Min Read

The chances are running out fast for Murali Vijay. He couldn’t make the most of the conditions in Adelaide and with the way the Perth pitch is behaving, it wasn’t going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. It was evident from his footwork that he was not so comfortable to bat the tricky little period before lunch. And finally, the lightning struck.

Mitchell Starc was upping his pace gradually with every delivery and after bowling harmless balls earlier in the over, the left-arm seamer tailed one back in at the batsman. The pace was also there and Vijay’s cemented foot led to his undoing. The big booming inswinger pitched on a good length area even as Vijay hoped for it to move away. Instead, it came back in and his bat was late in coming down.

There was a gap between bat and pad which was enough for 144.9 kph ball to go through his defences and rattle the stumps. For the naked eye, it looked like Murali Vijay was unlucky as he got an unplayable delivery but that wasn’t the case. Probably the first Test dismissals were playing on his mind when he was sent back by the same bowler with the away-going deliveries.

This time around, Vijay played for the same and Starc surprised him with a slightly incoming red cherry and disturbed the furniture. The experienced Indian opener didn’t disturb the scorers even after playing 12 balls and the rut which began in South Africa, extended for him.

India in trouble

Meanwhile, the visitors are in trouble early in the first innings. They bundled out Australia for 326 runs as the Indian bowlers, for a change, didn’t let the last three wickets add runs. But the openers Vijay and KL Rahul are already back in the hut with hardly anything on the board. Two of India’s best batsmen, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli are fighting it out at the moment.