On a slowish track, where dew played havoc in the chase, M Vijay unfurled a gorgeous hundred and shared a 155-run opening partnership with Shikhar Dhawan to charge India Red to the final

The Bulletin by Sriram Veera09-Oct-2009
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsM Vijay scored a fluent century•ESPNcricinfo LtdOn a slowish track, where dew played havoc in the chase, M Vijay unfurled a gorgeous hundred and shared a 155-run opening partnership with Shikhar Dhawan to charge India Red to the final. Red chased down the 224-run target within 40 overs to get the bonus point which has put them straight into the final.Vijay, who didn’t look fluent in the Irani Cup game but fought on hard to score 91, moved along in style today. He was particularly strong on the front foot, flicking and driving his way to a fourth List A hundred. There was one shot which caught his mood perfectly: L Balaji landed one full around the middle and off line and looked to curve it away when Vijay glided forward to flick it through midwicket. It oozed class and had a touch of impishness to it, and both those traits were seen right through his knock today. There were a few on-the-up punchy drives through the off side, several flick shots and a few nonchalant swings to the on side at the end as he upped the ante in pursuit of the bonus point.Dhawan provided Vijay solid support in an assured partnership that completely demoralised India green. If Vijay was fluent on the front foot Dhawan showed off his back-foot prowess. Not that he wasn’t good off the front – there were couple extra-cover drives off Dhawal Kulkarni and Balaji – but his back-foot play stood out today with couple of pull shots and crunchy punches to point boundary.The Green bowlers struggled with the dew and it won’t be a surprise if the captains who win the toss choose to bowl first for the remainder of this tournament. Though, admittedly, the conditions did affect Green, they lost the game with a below-par batting performance.Green meandered for a while before Sourabh Tiwary and Anirudha Srikkanth provided some impetus to push them to 223. The start of the innings was a little strange. Neither the bowlers nor the batsmen seemed to be in any flow, but Sudeep Tyagi broke through with a delivery that bounced at Parthiv Patel, who stabbed it to left of short gully where it was brilliantly held by a diving Dhawan. That turned the tide for Red, as Munaf and Tyagi tightened the leash with their disciplined lines and lengths. Munaf bounced out Ajinkya Rahane before Suresh Raina gifted his wicket, bowled by Munaf while attempting an awful swing across the line.Those early wickets put Green under immense pressure and Badrinath chose the opportunity to get in some tight overs of off spin from R Ashwin and himself. The runs came in a trickle in the middle overs and it took rearguard actions from Tiwary and Anirudha to get them out of a hole. Tiwary kept pushing the ball into gaps for singles but revealed his hitting prowess with the odd big hits. He broke free against Ashwin with a chipped six over long-on before he lofted and flat-batted Ravindra Jadeja to the straight boundary. He also cut and glanced Ishant for boundaries but fell, top edging a reverse sweep against Ashwin.Till then, Anirudha had done his job almost perfectly, concentrating on giving the strike back to Tiwary with his dabs and nudges. Post Tiwary’s exit, Anirudha took over with couple of big hits of his own: he opened his stance and swung Munaf and Ashwin to the long-on boundary and added some respectability to the score but it wasn’t enough to challenge Vijay and Dhawan.