FEATURES
Follow UsOn December 28 (Saturday), Nitish Kumar Reddy became the first Indian batter batting at No.8 or lower to smash a Test century in Australia. The 21-year-old got to his maiden Test hundred on day three of the fourth Test between India and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with a four off Scott Boland's bowling.
Overall, Reddy became only the fifth Indian to hit an overseas Test ton batting at No.8 or lower and the third-youngest Indian after Sachin Tendulkar and Rishabh Pant to get a hundred in Australia.
How the Andhra-born all-rounder got to the landmark was more entertaining and thrilling than the blockbuster Telugu movie Pushpa 2. Him and Washington Sundar were batting like a dream, having already put on 127 runs for the eighth wicket, and a century looked like a mere formality. However, that's when Nathan Lyon got Washington caught behind, and Reddy still had three runs left to reach the milestone.
Tension started rising at the MCG, with Mutalya Reddy, his father, also watching his son from the stands. Jasprit Bumrah walked into bat at No.10, and Reddy made the mistake of running two on the final delivery of Scott Boland's over. That exposed Bumrah to Pat Cummins and the Australian captain managed to induce an outside edge to the wicketkeeper.
There were prayers, not just from his father, but from almost every fan available at the MCG and people watching the match from all over the world. The onus was on Mohammed Siraj to survive Cummins' three deliveries, and the seamer didn't disappoint. The opportunity was now right in front of Reddy and the youngster pounced at it with a lofted drive over the fielder at mid-on.
The job was done; Nitish Kumar Reddy conquered the MCG. He also became the third-youngest to smash a Test hundred batting at #8 or lower after Bangladesh's Abul Hasan and India's Ajay Ratra.
When he was picked for the Australia tour, Reddy was averaging in the low 20s with the bat. His selection largely came based on his medium pace, but four Tests into the series, he has emerged as India’s leading run-scorer. 284 runs in six innings at an average of 71 - Reddy is having a debut series to remember.
The right-hander got starts in all of his five innings in the first three Tests and has now managed to convert it into a big score. 41 off 59 and 38* off 27 in Perth, 42 off 54 and 42 off 57 in Adelaide, and 16 off 61 in Brisbane - Reddy looked comfortable and assured every time he walked out to bat in the opening three Tests, but couldn’t touch the 50-run mark for various reasons. He didn't get much support from the lower-order batters.
But what was impressive is he got all those runs under pressure and when he came out to bat in the first session of the MCG Test, the situation was no different. India were 191/6, having lost their overnight batter, Rishabh Pant, with Ravindra Jadeja following suit 30 runs later.
Reddy has the lowest false-shot percentage in this series (minimum four innings), so it didn’t come as a surprise when he started collecting runs with ease from the start of his innings. The 21-year-old announced his arrival with a superb straight drive off Nathan Lyon’s bowling and pounced on every scoring opportunity.
He even danced down the track and whacked Lyon for a maximum straight down the ground. That was his eighth six of the series - the joint-most by an away batter in a series Down Under. Reddy got the support from Washington at the other end, which made him realise he doesn’t have to go hard at every delivery.
Reddy’s confidence was on display when he attempted a reverse sweep on the penultimate delivery of the 80th over, just two deliveries before the second new ball was set to be available. It was against Mitchell Starc - half-volley outside off - Reddy got to his half-century with a lofted cover drive for a boundary.
The first landmark was achieved, but Reddy knew the job was far from over. He was never over-reliant on boundaries and kept those ones, twos and threes coming regularly. Cummins tested him with a barrage of short deliveries and even hit him on a couple of occasions but Reddy refused to throw his bat around just for the sake of it.
There was another difficult phase post-tea, with Cummins, Mitchell Marsh and Boland bowling those tight lines just outside off. Reddy survived those spells and started getting closer and closer to his hundred. But one man he didn't allow to dominate was Lyon. Against Australia's ace offspinner, Reddy scored 44 off 60 deliveries. Reddy has dominated Lyon (79 runs without getting out) throughout the series, not just at the MCG.
At one point, it looked like Australia would run away with a first-innings lead well above 200, but thanks to Reddy and Washington, India are still very much alive in the match and the series. Washington perished after scoring 50 off 162 deliveries. However, Reddy got into triple figures and showed everyone he was 'Ready' for this stage.
"Thaggede le, Nitish Kumar Reddy"
