Nitish Kumar Reddy, you little beauty! Boy, what are you made of? When things were going downhill for India against Australia on the 3rd Day of the Boxing Day Test Match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, you stood tall and looked confident and assured. That’s the swag you displayed and did that famous step of Allu Arjun, the protagonist of the popular Telugu film Pushpa – The Rise – when reaching a half-century and a well-deserved century in front of 85,000 crowd at the MCG. Entire India is proud of the rescue act you did in the company of Washington Sundar who hit a 50. The 127-run partnership shared between Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar took India to 358 for 9 at the close of Day 3. India are still 116 runs behind Australia.
Nitish Kumar Reddy Shows Composure, Temperament and Precision in Equal Measure
It was going all well on Day 3 as Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, the overnight batters, strode forward to the centre. Both were getting runs easily and it seemed they would take India to a comfortable position at lunch. But then came the brain fade from Rishabh who in his customary way to play a ram shot while falling on the off-side failed to connect as the ball went to Nathan Lyon at deep third man. Criticism for Pant loaded from everywhere, including the commentators covering the game. It was chaos.
But then came Nitish Kumar Reddy who stitched a useful 30-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja. He looked composed, left deliveries comfortably, ran hard between the wickets, and pounced on anything loose offered to him by the bowlers. However, Jadeja fell to a slider from Lyon and was adjudged out leg before wicket.
In came Washington Sundar with Team India reduced to 221 for 7, 353 runs behind Australia’s first-innings total of 474. India looked down and out! They just hoped to avoid the follow-on by notching 275 at least. India reached 244 for 7 at Lunch, with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar remaining unbeaten at 40 and 5, respectively. The session yielded India 80 runs for the loss of two wickets. Australia were on top!
Nitish Kumar Reddy Shifts Gears Post Lunch, Takes India to 326 for 7 Before Heavens Open Up
Nitish Kumar Reddy opened his shoulders in the post-lunch session and smacked 45 runs off 58 balls, scoring his first Test half-century in the process. He remained unbeaten at 85 off 119 balls, while Sundar supported him with an unbeaten 40 off 115 balls. India rocketed to 326 for 7, smacking 82 runs off 24 overs before rain interrupted the proceedings and Tea was taken earlier.
A 40-minute Delay Before the Game Resumes
The match was stopped for 40 minutes before it began. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar made their way to the middle. Australians, after being attacked by Reddy, looked to protect runs by bowling way outside the off-stump. However, the pair stood resilient and added another 22 runs before Sundar edged it to Steve Smith off Nathan Lyon. Jasprit Bumrah came in and got out for a duck, fending one outside off to Usman Khwaja at first slip. Nitish was just one short of a hundred and India had just one wicket left. The drama couldn’t have been more pulsating!
Mohd. Siraj survived three deliveries and received a loud cheer from the packed MCG crowd for his effort. The next over saw Nitish Kumar Reddy lifting Scott Boland for a boundary straight down the ground to bring up his maiden Test century. The crowd, the Indian contingent and Nitish’s father were all emotional and in awe of the batter’s masterpiece.
With that, he became the first and the only Indian batter till now to have scored a hundred batting at number 8 in Australia. The previous best was 87 by Anil Kumble at Adelaide in 2008. What a sporting spectacle it was!
We at Zaroori Baat Hai want India to reduce the deficit further on Day 4.
