India’s young all-rounder Nitish Reddy achieved a remarkable milestone on Day 03 of the Border Gavaskar Trophy at Melbourne Cricket Ground. He scored his first-ever Test century in test helping the side to avoid following on and cross the 300-run mark.
On the third day of the Boxing Day test in Melbourne, Reddy celebrated his fifty and converted it into a well-deserved three-figure off 171 balls, but not before high-tension drama.
At 348/7, Nitish Reddy was on 97 and his partnership with Washington Sundar reached 127, Sundar was removed by Lyon after a half-century, after which Nitish denied taking singles to retain the strike.
“For our family, it’s a special day and we cannot forget this day in our life. He has been performing well since the age group of 14-15 and now in international cricket, it’s a very special feeling,” said Mutyala when Adam Gilchrist interviewed him for the official broadcaster.
Nitish Kumar Reddy hits his maiden Test century and receives a standing ovation from the MCG crowd ❤️ #AUSvIND | #PlayOfTheDay | @nrmainsurance pic.twitter.com/Vbqq5C26gz
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 28, 2024
“I was very tensed. Only the last wicket was remaining. Thankfully Siraj managed to survive,” said Mutyala.
“My father left his job for me and there has been a lot of sacrifice behind my story. One day, I saw him crying because of the financial problems we were facing, and I was like, this is not how you can be. Then I got serious, I gave my first jersey to him and saw the happiness in his face.”
Australia batted first and made scores of 311/6 by the end of day 01. Earlier on day 02, Australia went on to score 474 runs with Steven Smith scoring 140. They were able to post a huge total with half-centuries from Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja and Labuschagne.
Pat Cummins scored 49 runs at the low order to strengthen their score. Indian bowlers worked on a challenging surface, with Bumrah picking 4/99, Jadeja had a return of 3/78 and Akash Deep picking 2/94 runs.
After KL Rahul’s dismissal for 24 runs by cummins, India struggled once again with top order woes. However, Kohli-Jaiswal Partnership recovered India, but did not last long.
Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal stitched a solid partnership to recover India after the loss of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.
They made a 100 run partnership before being dismissed for 82 and 36 runs respectively. After their dismissal Akash Deep sent out on a duck with Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja at crease by the end of day 02.
With Bumrah’s dismissal by Cummins on a duck, India is down to last one wicket with Nitish Reddy and Mohammed Siraj at crease. India scored 358/9 by the end of day 03 at Stumps.
