India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy put on a show with the bat on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
In reply to Australia’s first innings total of 474, the visitors were reeling at 191/6 when Nitish arrived in the middle. Amidst intense pressure, the 21-year-old stitched a gritty 127-run partnership with Washington Sundar to keep India in the hunt.
While Sundar was dismissed for 50, Nitish held the one end firmly and batted with the tail-enders to bring up his hundred. He reached his three-figure mark with a lofted drive for a boundary over mid-on off Scott Boland.
Soon after Nitish Reddy’s ton, the players walked off the field due to bad light and the subsequent rain resulted in early stumps. India were 358/9 at the close of play with Reddy (105*) and Siraj (2*) at the crease, reducing Australia’s deficit to 116 runs.
Speaking at the press conference after the day’s play, Sundar heaped praise on Reddy’s brilliance with the bat. He also emphasized the clarity the team maintained regarding their responsibilities.
"I was just focusing on what was required of me from the team's perspective. You know, that gave me a lot of clarity and made things easier for me to focus on what I was supposed to be focusing on, because we were very sure and aware of what the team required throughout the day," Sundar told reporters.
"I mean, the coach and the captain kept reminding us about that. So, in that fashion, I guess in terms of clarity, we were reassured about what exactly we needed to know. It was definitely important for us to spend a lot of time out there in the middle because runs would come at some stage, even if they didn’t in some phases of the game. Runs would definitely come, but the most important thing was obviously to dig in, especially with that partnership, and spend a lot of time out there in the middle. I think we did that pretty well today."
Nitish Reddy also hogged the limelight by mimicking the iconic “Thaggede le” gesture from the movie Pushpa after completing his half-century.
"It's fire and not flowers. The celebration — he killed it, honestly. I'm sure he's got many more tricks up his sleeve. It'll just be a matter of him getting many more hundreds, and you guys will see a lot more celebrations," added Sundar.
With this knock, Reddy confirmed his status as India’s standout performer on this Australian tour alongside Jasprit Bumrah.
"I mean, the way he batted, he definitely deserved a hundred, didn’t he? We knew it was going to come. I mean, we knew God would be very kind in that regard. So yeah, we were very confident that he would go past his hundred, and eventually, it was very special. I mean, it's an amazing experience to be a part of," Sundar remarked.
