 "India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy raises his bat after completing his maiden Test half-century on Day 3 of the fourth Test against Australia in Melbourne. AP")
Nitish Kumar Reddy continued to impress in his maiden Test series, bringing up his maiden half-century in the format as India recovered from a shaky start on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test against Australia to avoid a follow-on. Reddy stood tall long after Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja’s dismissals in the morning session, the former perishing in an inexplicable manner that nearly led to a collapse like the one India suffered late on the second day following Yashasvi Jaiswal’s exit .
The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) all-rounder was batting on 85 at tea on the ‘Moving Day’ as India ended the afternoon session on 325/7, with bad light bringing the session to an end 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Reddy had stitched together a solid eighth-wicket partnership with fellow all-rounder Washington Sundar that was worth 104 during the interval, the latter batting on 40 after facing 115 deliveries.
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The talking point of the morning session, however, was Pant’s (28 off 37 balls) shot selection under the circumstances. The third day’s MCG track is perhaps the best to bat on with green grass making way for a brownish tinge and old a Kookaburra hardly doing anything. Had Pant stuck around, there was no way he wouldn’t have scored big.
With Jadeja (17 off 51 balls) for company, Pant did start well and got a few boundaries but then the urge to play the falling lap pull over long-leg brought about his dismissal.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWhen Pant tried it for the first time off Scott Boland, who came round the wicket, he was hit in the naval area and seemed to be in pain.
He got up but didn’t realise that Pat Cummins had placed one fielder at deep fine-leg and one at deep third man for both the conventional and reverse lap shot.
Without learning his lessons or caring about success percentage, Pant tried a similar shot but the extra bounce meant that the top edge flew to third man for a regulation catch.
“If there is a word called ‘worstest’, then this was one such shot,” former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar said on air.
But Reddy showed steely resolve as he started with a punchy off-drive off Nathan Lyon and also jumped down the track to loft him over for a straight six.
In the meantime, Reddy also lost his senior partner Jadeja, who was trapped leg-before by Lyon, but that didn’t deter the Visakhapatnam youngster from playing his shots and be watchful when the situation demanded.
With PTI inputs