Scott Boland on Nitish Reddy: When Nitish Reddy reached his first Test century by hitting a straight drive off Scott Boland, this Australian fast bowler got an idea of ​​the ability of the young Indian batsman. Reddy remained unbeaten on 105 at the end of the third day’s play, taking India’s first innings score to 358 for nine at stumps. With this, the team has a chance to save the fourth test.
“Yeah, definitely, he is playing really well. Playing lower down the middle order, he is trying to put pressure on us,” Boland said in response to PTI’s query after the end of the day’s play. And he’s playing well.” He said, “He played really well. He is a young player from India who hits the ball really well. It seems like he has almost every shot.”
Boland first saw Reddy during the pink ball match between India and Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra. He said, “I played ‘A’ matches against him, Prime Minister’s XI matches and then some Test matches. You can see that he can score runs all over the ground.” Boland said, “He is obviously a very good player and performs well in the IPL. He is performing well in Australian conditions as well.”
If we talk about the match, then Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made his initial steps in Test cricket, played the role of ‘troubleshooter’ for India and shattered Australia’s hopes of victory by scoring an unbeaten century on the third day of the fourth Test. With the help of Reddy’s unbeaten 105 runs, India had scored 358 runs for nine wickets till the third day’s play was ended early due to rain. India is still 116 runs behind Australia’s first innings score of 474 runs.
Seeing that the bowlers do not get any help on the flat pitch of MCG, it should not be very difficult for India to save the Test. Full credit goes to Reddy for discovering India in this series. Setting an example of fighting spirit, he made an important partnership of 127 runs with Washington Sundar (50 runs in 162 balls) which was a turning point for India. Great batsman Sunil Gavaskar described Reddy’s innings as one of the best Test innings. When Rishabh Pant lost his wicket by playing an irresponsible shot, India’s score was 191 runs for six wickets.
The young Andhra batsman’s score was 99 runs when Jasprit Bumrah was out. At this time Reddy and the last batsman Mohammad Siraj were at the crease. When Siraj arrived, the audience again booed him but he played three balls of host captain Pat Cummins with caution. After every ball, the expressions on the faces of Reddy and his father sitting in the gallery were changing but Siraj played three balls carefully and gave Reddy the moment which he had dreamed of thousands of times.
Reddy completed his century by hitting a straight four off Scott Boland and expressed his gratitude to the Indian dugout by sitting on his knees and placing his helmet on the bat. Indian players stood up and greeted him.
