Murali Vijay feels pitch wasn’t to blame for Pune loss

Tags: Australia tour of India,2017, India, Australia, Murali Vijay, pitch

Published on: Mar 02, 2017

The surface for first India-Australia Test in Pune may have been termed as poor by cricket’s governing body

The surface for first India-Australia Test in Pune may have been termed as poor by cricket’s governing body, the ICC. But, India opener Murali Vijay states that the pitch was not to be blamed for India’s defeat.
Vijay felt that India need to improve their catching and fielding significantly in Bengaluru. India were all out for 105 and 107 in the two innings, losing the Test by 333 runs.
Ahead of the Bangalore Test, which begins on Saturday, Vijay told reporters, “I won’t say the Pune wicket was a poor wicket. It was a challenging wicket from ball one.”
“As cricketers we need to play on such wickets to test your ability rather than playing on flat tracks,” added Vijay, who managed only scores of 10 and 2 in the Pune Test.
Vijay felt the track at Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium will be a sporting one. “Personally I don’t go into a match seeing the wicket. I go into the middle with an open mind and look to adapt according to the pitch conditions,” he said.
India gave Australian skipper Steve Smith four lives during second innings at Pune when he scored a hundred. Vijay wants India to raise their game. “We had a chat about it (improving fielding) and we are working on few of the areas where we could have done much better in the last Test match,” said Vijay, who was among those who spilled a catch.
“We are looking forward to this game and hopefully we can pull off those catches,” he went on to add.
--By A Cricket Correspondent

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