Nitish Reddy, an unknown entity in red-ball cricket before the start of the Border-Gavaskar series, virtually bailed India out with his dogged maiden Test century here on Saturday, severely denting Australia’s hopes of winning the Boxing Day contest.

Reddy’s unbeaten 105 took India to 358 for nine, still 116 runs short of Australia’s first innings score of 474 as rain brought an early end to the third day’s play.

With the flat MCG deck not offering much to the bowlers, saving the Test match shouldn’t be a big deal for India. Reddy, easily India’s ‘find of the series’, played a pivotal role in visitors’ fightback.

Reddy’s combative spirit and the invaluable 127-run stand he shared with Washington Sundar (50 off 162 balls) proved to be the turning point for the hosts.

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar termed Reddy’s innings one of the greatest Test knocks. Given the situation, India was in a precarious position after Rishab Pant’s dismissal courtesy of a rash shot left them tottering at 191 for six.

The young Andhra batter could have been stranded on 99 when Jasprit Bumrah got dismissed, leaving Reddy with a last-man in Mohammed Siraj, who walked into another round of boos and faced three deliveries from home skipper Pat Cummins.

Both Reddy and his father Muthyala’s expressions changed with each ball, but Siraj survived to allow Reddy to savour the moment he must have dreamt a thousand times.

A picture-perfect straight drive off Scott Boland was the moment of the series for India. Reddy balanced his helmet with the bat and took a knee, expressing his gratitude to the Indian dugout, which gave him a standing ovation.

After completing his fifty, the 21-year-had struck the ‘Pushpa’ pose and aced the ‘Salaar’ pose to celebrate the century.

A decade ago, when his father Muthyala left a secure job to open a micro-finance (lending) business and incurred losses, the Reddy family was advised not to give wings to young Reddy’s cricketing dreams, but they were unrelenting.

Sitting in the stands near the boundary, Reddy’s father broke down when his son achieved the milestone.

As Indian fans clicked selfies with him, it must have reminded them of the day his son received the best U-16 cricketer award from the BCCI in 2017. An impressionable Reddy was seen clicking selfies with his idol Virat Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma while leaving the hotel premises.

Reddy’s batting was based on a stable core: playing the ball late and only going for the drive when the ball was pitched up. He wasn’t defending unnecessarily, and his 10 fours and sixes testified to that.

If the morning was more about Rishabh Pant’s inexplicable shot selection, the afternoon session belonged to Reddy, whose attacking game put the pressure right back on Australia.

There were plenty of boundaries and a six off Nathan Lyon, but none were more gorgeous than the off-drive off Cummins.

Reddy has been by far India’s most consistent batter in the series, and the maiden Test century couldn’t have come at a more opportune time and that too at an iconic venue.

Washington, on the other hand, grew in confidence and trusted his defence, apart from punishing the loose deliveries. It did help that the drop-in surface at the MCG got better for batting as the match progressed.

The second new ball did very little for Australian bowlers, and the Indian duo ran very well between the wickets. The two batters looked to reduce the deficit further, with Mitchell Starc’s back acting up a little.

In the morning it was all about Pant’s shot selection that hurt India.

The third day’s MCG track is perhaps the best to bat on, with green grass making way for a brownish tinge and an old Kookaburra hardly doing anything.

Had Pant stuck around, there was no way he wouldn’t have scored big.

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.

When he tried it for the first time off Scott Boland, who came around the wicket, Pant was hit in the naval area and seemed to be in pain.

He got up but didn’t realise that 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 was 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 Lyon and also jumped down the track to loft him over for a straight six during a splendid recovery act.

Related Topics