Wouldn’t rate my knock as a good innings: Vijay

Ranchi, March 18 (IANS) Opening batsman Murali Vijay did not want to rate his innings highly saying he could have pushed himself harder as India ended day three on 330/6 trailing by 91 runs against Australia here on Saturday.

"I wouldn't rate it as a good innings," Vijay said after the day's play at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) Stadium here.

"But I fought out there, and that's what matters. KL (Lokesh Rahul) batted really well yesterday, I wanted to feed off his energy. I just wanted to play tight cricket. Today I wanted to push myself a little harder," he added.

Vijay, coming back into the side from an injury, scored 82 off 183 balls stitching together a 102-run stand for the second wicket with marathon man Cheteshwar Pujara, who remained unbeaten on 130 off 328 deliveries.

"Pujara was rock solid. Hopefully he can put up a great show for us tomorrow. Definitely run scoring was difficult, they too bowled very good areas. If I had gone through to lunch, it would have been a different story altogether," he said.

On the match which is evenly placed after the third day, the Tamil Nadu batsman said taking the lead and building on it will be the key.

"If we can extend the lead, we will have a good game in our hands."

Vijay did not want to read too much into skipper Virat Kohli's lean patch saying it's a matter of time before he gets back his form.

"He is a world class player. It's just a matter of time for him to get back in the groove."

Kohli scored just six runs before getting out to comeback man Pat Cummins, who returned with figures of 4/59 for the tourists.