Vijay grabs his chance

Chennai: Vijay Shankar was included in the playing eleven against Rajasthan to provide stability to the Tamil Nadu middle-order and act as an additional medium-pacer. On day one, the all-rounder did justice to his selection by cracking an unbeaten half-century and shared an unbeaten 132-run stand with R. Prasanna. 

“I didn’t have any game plan. I just wanted to react to the ball. They were bowling well especially Pankaj and we just thought of sticking around and get ourselves in,” said Vijay, 22. 

Having the crisis man Prasanna at the other end eased the pressure on Vijay. “Prasanna is an experienced player. He was relaxed and he guided me well,” he added. 

The youngster, who spent a lot of time in the middle handling the off-spin of Ramesh Powar, said that the pitch would assist Tamil Nadu spinners as the game progressed.