Vijay and Pujara's hundreds power India's first-innings effort

India's opener, Murali Vijay, joined forces with Cheteshwar Pujara to score his sixth Test ton, on the third day, of the first Test against England being played in Rajkot on Friday.

India began the day still 474 runs a drift from England's massive 537-run first-innings total. Openers, Vijay and Gautam Gambhir, had negotiated 23 overs successfully on the second day, but they knew that their job was far from finished.

England, buoyed by a huge total to defend, struck from just the seventh delivery of the day, with Gambhir being trapped lbw by Stuart Broad for 29. His dismissal brought Pujara to the fore. In the first session Chris Woakes tested the batsmen with a five-over spell of six runs and three body blows for Pujara.

In the second session Broad went 5-4-1-0, targeting that bare patch just short of a driving length. In the final session Broad and Ben Stokes tested with the new ball. Pujara, known for being circumspect early in his innings, took on the challenge and played more freely than his normally more aggressive partner.

Vijay, sat seemingly dormant for large parts of his innings, but targeted the spinners by resorting to the lofted shot. He attempted it six times, and smashed two sixes each off Moeen Ali and Zafar Ansari, and a four each off Zafar Ansari and Adil Rashid.

While Pujara took 74 balls for his fifty, Vijay took 129. He had his share of luck on 66, when debutant Haseeb Hameed grassed him at cover. He made the most of the reprieve and raced to his ton with two impressive boundaries of Stuart Broad in the 84th over, just three overs after Pujara had scored his ninth ton.

The 209-run stand between Vijay and Pujara made them the most prolific duo for India since the start of 2010, outscoring Gambhir and Virender Sehwag who had amassed 1908 runs in 44 innings they batted together.

Ben Stokes finally broke the stand in the 92nd over by dismissing Pujara for a 206-ball 124. In the dying overs of the day's play, Rashid got Vijay caught at short leg with a googly, for a 301-ball 126. Vijay's 126 is his lowest 100-plus score. His lowest score in six previous Test centuries was 139. His strike rate of 41.86 in this innings is his second-lowest among centuries. At stumps, India had scored 319 runs and are 19 runs short of avoiding the follow-on.

"They bowled good lines, when the ball started reversing it was tough. I knew that if I stayed there I would get loose balls," Pujara said. "Sometimes you have to respect the bowlers in international cricket. I'm expecting it to turn from day four and five. Hopefully we can get a lead and then you never know, we have a chance."