I managed to learn a little more that may be helpful for others in the community - so thought I would share my learnings:
I was a little confused as to why in my scenario it was triggering a wdt reset given the lines before I call Blynk.connect(4777) I specifically disable the software watchdog with EST.wdtDisable( ). However I learnt at https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/blob/4897e0006b5b0123a2fa31f67b14a3fff65ce561/cores/esp8266/Esp.cpp#L97 that disabling the software watchdog invokes the hardware watchdog to kick in within 6 seconds and therefore the reason for my system reset[reason cause 4] i.e. hardware watchdog]
I ran my code without disabling the software watchdog and it worked fine. The only mod i did was change BlynkProtocol.h line 215 from 5000UL to 500ULbut I left the secondrun in at line 59.
In order to make my code work with the software watchdog disabled before I call Blynk.connect(4333); I had to both delete line 59 (i.e. the run command) in BlynkProtocol.h and reduce in line 215 the reconnect time to 500UL.