He did it all with the bat on Saturday, leaving observers salivating over what he had already done and what he can still do
Alagappan Muthu28-Dec-2024Nitish Kumar Reddy was horrified. He was 85 off 119 when a spell of rain forced the players off the field. When they came back on, the ball started decking around a bit. So he decided he would start again. Pretend he was on 0. He took 48 deliveries to score his next 12 runs and then, with a maiden Test century just one hit away, he saw one land right in his hitting arc and he just couldn’t resist. The ball went straight up in the air.This was the MCG. More than 80,000 people were watching. Millions more back home. All of them were waiting. He might have been as well. Not just through the course of this innings or this tour. The fact that he’s here in an India shirt means he’s been going to bed almost every night dreaming of this moment. Some mistakes help people grow, but this one…The leading edge spiralled off over cover and landed just beyond Pat Cummins’ reach. Reddy went from 97 to 99 with his hand clutching the top of his helmet.Related
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A scoop shot inside the first hour of play on day three had brought him out to the middle. It felt like that shot would define the play; possibly even the whole Test. As Rishabh Pant walked off the field, he flipped his bat around and stared at the toe-end. That’s where he’d made contact with the ball. The argument in favour of these shots, usually, is . Okay. Sure. He would have got four, maybe six runs. That still would have left Australia with 279 more in the bank.That’s why the risk wasn’t worth it. Not because of the shot. Not because it backfired. But because, at that time, India would have gained little with its success but they would lose a lot with its failure.”He should not be going into that dressing room,” Sunil Gavaskar said on . “He should be going into the other dressing room.”Reddy walked into this tumult and restored order. But on 99, he was stuck at the non-strikers’ end, watching India lose their ninth wicket and dark clouds gathering out in the west.2:10
Washington: Nitish’s hundred ‘will be remembered forever’
? It almost didn’t. Cummins beat his outside edge the very first ball. ? It had been the first spanner in the works; until that shower that prompted an early tea, Reddy was going at a strike rate of 71. After the intrusion, it dropped to 35. It was a necessary adjustment, but now…Siraj ducked under a Cummins bouncer and immediately Reddy brought his bat up and with one hand and punched it with the other. One more ball till he would be back on strike. Siraj defended it and held the pose.Reddy’s father was at the MCG. In 2016, he had left his job because it would have taken him and his family out of station at the wrong time. His 13-year-old son had just been picked by the Andhra Cricket Association for the district-level trials. Mutyalu couldn’t bring himself to go. He couldn’t do that to his son. He could never have known that the sacrifice would pay off this handsomely. He was in tears when the hundred finally came, falling back into the crowd behind him, clutching his hands together in prayer.Nitish Kumar Reddy’s century had his father in tears•Cricket Australia via Getty ImagesReddy, meanwhile, went down on one knee on the same turf that Shane Warne had picked up his 700th Test wicket. He planted his bat down into the same outfield where India had piled into Ravi Shastri’s Audi and ridden around to celebrate winning the 1985 Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket final. He plonked his helmet on top of the handle, and went down on one knee to recreate the hero’s pose from the movie .”It’s a celebration. He’s killed it, honestly,” Washington Sundar said at the end of the day’s play. “I’m sure he’s got many more up his sleeve and it’s just a matter of him getting many more hundreds.”
The Reddy family has been a bundle of emotions today. Witness the magical moment as they embrace Nitish after he wowed the world with his extraordinary maiden Test century at the MCG.
A day etched in memories… pic.twitter.com/uz9mrASuRm
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 28, 2024