Under-fire Murali Vijay scores century on county debut for Essex

Indian opener Murali Vijay on Thursday hit a scintillating century on his County debut, as Essex beat Nottinghamshire by eight-wickets in a County Championship Division One match at Trent Bridge.

Vijay stroked his way to a 181-ball 100 and stitched a match-winning 204-run partnership with Tom Westley, who hit an unbeaten 110 off 198 balls, for the second-wicket. 

The 34-year old batsman hit 15 fours en-route his maiden century, matching South Africa's Hashim Amla's 181, against Glamorgan in 2009, as the last batsman to hit a century for Essex on debut. 

Murali Vijay had also scored his maiden county half-century in the first innings. He had top-scored with a 95-ball 56, steering Essex, who had trailed by 177 runs, to a 56-run first innings lead. 

In response, Nottinghamshire scored 377/10 (103 overs) but Essex, chasing 282, made short note of the opposition bowlers, convincingly reaching the total at the brink of lunch and winning their fifth match in the 2018 season. 

Vijay, who was dropped after a dismal outing in India's first two Tests against England, had signed for Essex club last week for the remainder of the Championship.

Earlier, Vijay had scored 26 runs in four innings against the English side but has stormed back into the Indian selectors' radar after the classy century.