Nitish Kumar Reddy lights up India’s day on dark Saturday at the MCG

Indian cricket team showed great resilience in staging a remarkable fightback on day 3 of the MCG Test on Saturday. Young Nitish Kumar Reddy stole the show with the bat scoring his maiden Test ton in front of a packed crowd. What made the feat more special was that his father was able to watch the entire innings live in the stands. 

Nitish Kumar Reddy smashed Scott Boland for a four and set off on a celebratory run. His father had tears in his eyes as the fans celebrated with the proud parent. The second spell of showers meant that the play ended early. Team India were placed at 358/9 still trailing by 116 runs with 2 days left to play. 

The day began with Rishabh Pant walking out to bat along with Ravindra Jadeja. India were still 110 runs short of avoiding follow-on. Pant wanted to dictate early terms with the bat as he stepped down the track to smash Pat Cummins for a boundary. Australian bowlers kept a tight lid on India’s scoring. 

Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar’s gutsy show saves India

Scott Boland struck first when an ungainly shot by Rishabh Pant saw the Indian wicketkeeper fall for 28 runs. Pant was called out by Sunil Gavaskar as he gifted his wicket with ease while trying to play the falling scoop shot. Nathan Lyon gave Australia their 2nd wicket of the day when he trapped Jadeja LBW for just 17 runs. 

At that stage, India were placed at 221/7 still needing 53 runs to avoid the follow-on. Sundar and Reddy then batted together for 283 balls to add 127 runs for the 8th wicket. Washington Sundar in particular was sedate in his approach as he applied lots of caution and rarely played a rash shot. 

Nitish Kumar Reddy reached his fifty with a punishing shot for four and did the ‘Pushpa’ celebration. The pair kept growing in confidence as the Aussie bowlers started to lose their lines and lengths. The stand was finally broken when Sundar edged the ball to Steve Smith in the slips to give Lyon his 2nd wicket of the day. 

Jasprit Bumrah fell for a third ball duck with Reddy still on 99 with dark clouds hovering over MCG. Mohammed Siraj survived the final 3 balls of the over to put his young partner on strike. Once Reddy reached his ton, Siraj was elated as he ran down the wicket to celebrate the huge moment in front of the packed MCG stadium.