India vs Sri Lanka: Murali Vijay celebrates Test return with brilliant century

Courtesy: BCCI

New Delhi: India opener Murali Vijay celebrated his return to international cricket with a brilliant century on the second day of Nagpur Test against on Saturday. (Day 2 Blog || Scorecard)

Vijay, 33, started the day with a sublime on-drive off the very ball, then stitched an unbeaten 166-run 346 balls-run stand with Cheteshwar Pujara to torment the visitors at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.

He reached the triple-figure mark with a single off the fourth ball of the over, bowled by Dilruwan Perera, for his tenth hundred. He has so far hit nine fours and a six.

It's his 10th Test hundred in 52 matches, and fourth in ten innings. He scored 126 at Rajkot, 136 at Mumbai – both against England last November.

In February, he scored 108 against Bangladesh in Hyderabad.

He last played a Test match in March early this year, against Australia at Dharamsala.

India resumed second day's play on 11/1 with Vijay hitting the first ball, bowled by Suranga Lakmal.

Yesterday, India bowled out Sri Lanka for 205 with Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja sharing all ten wickets among themselves.

The first Test in Kolkata ended in a thrilling draw. The third and final Test match will be played in Delhi, starting December 2.

India took the opening day honours dismissing Lanka for 205, with the trio sharing all ten wickets among themselves. Ashwin and Jadeja, who went wicketless in the first Test at Kolkata, returned figures of 4/67 and 3/56, while Ishant bowled a telling spell of 3/37 to bowl out the Lankans for a paltry total in 79.1 overs.

For the visitors, skipper Chandimal (57) and opener Dimuth Karunaratne (51) hit fifties and showed fleeting moments of brilliance, but Indian bowlers were too disciplined to let them off the hook.

However, Lanka responded in style by removing KL Rahul (7), who played on a Lahiru Gamage delivery onto his stumps, late in the day.