Reddy's gutsy maiden ton a lifeline for struggling India

Nitish carves priceless century on Day 3 at MCG to extinguish Aussie hopes of certain victory in penultimate Test of 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series; 127-run stand for eighth wicket with Washington Sundar proves invaluable

Nitish Kumar Reddy lived out a dream at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, dragging India to respectability on the middle day of the fourth Test against Australia.

All of 21 years old and playing only his fourth Test, the lad from Visakhapatnam produced a memorable maiden century, a magnificent effort with his team in a deep hole on an emotional, truncated Saturday.

Nitish Kumar Reddy’s dad Mutalya in tears after his son’s first Test century on Saturday

Overnight 164-5 in reply to India’s 474, India lost Rishabh Pant to a terrible stroke with the score having moved to 191 when Nitish strode to the middle, high on confidence after top-scoring in three of India’s five completed innings in the series. India soon stumbled to 221-7 when Ravindra Jadeja, the other overnight batter, was trapped in front by Nathan Lyon, needing a further 54 to make the hosts bat again even if the follow on wasn’t really something the Aussies would have seriously considered.

India were batting deep in this game, and there was plenty of quality still on offer when Washington Sundar came out to join Nitish. Both had the ability to weather the storm, the question was whether they had the temperament to do so. The answer was an emphatic yes, the duo associating itself in an exhilarating stand of 127 for the eighth wicket to pull the fat out of the fire.

India still 116 runs behind

Nitish reached his century with last man Mohammed Siraj for company, a little after which bad light and rain brought a halt to the proceedings. By then, India had reached 358-9, still 116 behind Australia’s huge tally but at least keeping themselves afloat and living to fight another day.

For that, all the credit should go to Nitish and Washington, who both batted with tremendous commonsense and purpose. The MCG deck wasn’t as responsive to the bowlers as the earlier ones had been and the two youngsters — Washington is only 25 — figured out that there was no substitute for time in the middle. They had both just watched, perhaps as aghast as anyone else, how Pant had fallen into an obvious trap, attempting a scoop off Scott Boland when two men manned the leg-side boundary and a third was placed at third man for precisely that stroke and to whom he holed out. They were determined to make amends, with broad willows and big hearts.

Nitish was the more enterprising, Washington the more solid. The left-right combination complemented each other beautifully, digging into their familiarity with each other, especially from their time at Sunrisers Hyderabad over the last couple of years. Neither was fazed by the situation or the Australian attack that stove manfully but was often defeated by the slowness of the surface, though they kept up their disciplines and hardly gave up runs in a rush.

Lyon breaks crucial stand

The stand was eventually broken by Lyon, who found extra bounce to have Washington caught at slip, and when Jasprit Bumrah fell to Pat Cummins with three balls still left in the over, the danger of Nitish being stranded on 99 was genuine with Siraj having to keep out the three remaining balls. Siraj kept up his end of the bargain and Nitish expressed his thanks by driving Boland over straight mid-on for four to go to 103, an innings greeted with unabashed admiration by more than 85,000 who had packed the MCG.

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