Fans react as Murali Vijay rolls back the clock with 57-ball TNPL hundred

Murali Vijay rolled back the years with a sparkling hundred in the 19th match of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2022 in Coimbatore on Friday. Vijay struck a 66-ball 121 for the Ruby Trichy Warriors in their run-chase of 237 against the Nellai Royal Kings, and was dismissed on the penultimate ball of the game as his side went down by 66 runs.

Earlier, the Royal Kings put on a mammoth 236/2 after being put in to bat, with Sanjay Yadav (103* off 55) and Baba Aparajith (92* off 48) adding an unbroken 207-run stand in just 16.2 overs.

Vijay struck seven fours and a whopping 12 sixes during his stay, scoring 71.17% of the team’s total of 170/7. He got to his hundred off just 57 balls, with his team being 139/6 from 17.3 overs at that point.

The 38-year-old represented India in 61 Tests, 17 ODIs and nine T20Is between 2008 and 2018, and was arguably at his best in the longest format with 3,982 runs at 38.29 with 12 hundreds.

His last Test appearance came in Perth during India’s 2-1 series win Down Under in 2018/19, and was dropped thereafter after underwhelming returns.

Vijay was quite a force for Chennai Super Kings in their title wins in 2010 and 2011, scoring a game-setting 95 in the latter final against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, as well as their runners-up finish in 2012 and 2013. His imperious run in his first two editions in the 2010 edition had fetched him a spot in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2010 in the West Indies, but he could manage only 57 runs at 14.25 and a strike-rate of 83.82 as the team crashed out after three successive defeats in the Super Eight stage.

He was later roped in by the Delhi Capitals in 2014 and later to the Punjab Kings in 2015 and 2016, who he also captained, before returning to the CSK setup in 2018. He played just six IPL games between 2018 and 2020, before being overlooked in the later auctions.

The 38-year-old has aggregated 224 runs at 56 at the ongoing TNPL 2022, with his side placed seventh in the eight-team points table currently with just one win from four games.

Here’s how fans reacted as Murali Vijay rolled back the years with a stroke-filled hundred: