A hero is Reddy: Nitish scores maiden Test century; shares a 127-run stand with Sundar to rescue India at the MCG
Rishabh Pant’s dismissal on day three morning would fall under the latter. In his attempt to play a reverse sweep, Pant ended up miscuing it to third man to lose his wicket and reducing India to 191 for 6. The Australians could sense the beginning of the end. The stands were buzzing with excitement. For India, situation looked grim.
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Enter Nitish Kumar Reddy. And the rest is a story for future generations to get inspired.
Reddy has batted with confidence and commitment all through the tour, notching up three 40-plus scores. But this was different. The allrounder from Andhra Pradesh was preferred over a specialist batter of the calibre of Shubman Gill for this Test. The pressure on him was enormous. It’s one thing to bat with the tail and play your shots, and grinding it out to save the follow-on is another. None of this seemed to faze Reddy. He didn’t shy away from playing his shots and raced to 20 at nearly run-a-ball.
After lunch, with India still needing 31 runs to avoid the follow-on, Reddy and his partner, Washington Sundar, had their task cut out. The second new ball was just seven overs away. Australia knew that negotiating the new ball wouldn’t be easy. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins were primed to attack with the fresh red cherry.
Reddy, however, had other ideas. Immediately after the new ball was taken, he unfurled
