Sam Konstas possesses the nonchalance of a youngster who is aware of and lives as much as the hype about him. The opposite spectacular debutant within the sequence, Nitish Reddy, didn’t have any hype and comes throughout as somebody whose fashion is substance.
Konstas’s every shot has assault, sprint, dare. Reddy doesn’t descend into the bravura terrain; there’s a measuredness about him that permits him to select from a powerful vary that varies from assault, counterattack and tight defence. And thought.
Not that there isn’t a pondering in Konstas; his assault on Bumrah was an epic takedown that had risk-taking thought behind it, accompanied by the arrogance within the laborious work put in these lap pictures. Reddy is extra conventionally calculative, although he has these imperious statement-making urges when he feels he’s underneath assault from the bowlers.
There was this battle with Pat Cummins on the third day of the Boxing Day Take a look at that maybe gained’t make it to YouTube immortality, however discerning audiences would have relished it.
Not a mainstream blockbuster like Konstas’s was; extra a distinct segment cult. It was a day when Mitch Starc, scuffling with a again niggle, couldn’t take a look at him. Early on, he flashed a 4 and later walloped a canopy boundary to convey up his fifty and do this “Thaggede le”, slash-the-throat celebration together with his bat, a reference to that Telugu film Pushpa.
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The shot, the celebration – every thing was good as #NitishKumarReddy accomplished his maiden Take a look at fifty! 👏#AUSvINDOnStar 👉 4th Take a look at, Day 3 | LIVE NOW! | #ToughestRivalry #BorderGavaskarTrophy pic.twitter.com/hupun4pq2N
— Star Sports activities (@StarSportsIndia) December 28, 2024
Of all of the Australian bowlers on the day, or for that matter within the sequence, Cummins’s artwork is most cerebrally incisive, exploring the weaknesses of batsmen with totally different means. At one section, his strategy towards Reddy was, to place it in easy phrases, to push him again, after which slip within the pure nip-backer. It was not so simple as a one-two growth, however one thing he would work on assiduously over a few overs.
Standing together with his bat on nearly the off-stump guard, Reddy presses again from his stance, and at instances ends with each toes contained in the crease. A lesser bowler would have tried the fuller inward floater, however Cummins has seen sufficient of Reddy on this sequence to know that the denouement can’t be that easy.
He would comply with the vicious bouncers or the away-shapers with the in-cutter however from a full-length. With Reddy on the press-back, the supply has immense deserves. He can’t dangle again and punch. He can’t simply lean ahead and let his fingers do the work, which could possibly be executed if it have been fuller; a ball that Australians repeatedly attempt at Shubman Gill. Reddy now has to attempt to get ahead or arise on his toes and attempt to punch a ball that’s nonetheless transferring round. Not straightforward.
However Reddy’s recreation is constructed round compactness. He can transfer ahead shortly in the direction of the ball from that place of retreat and punch on the up previous Cummins. Again and again, he did that. Not for him, the weak-angled prod of the bat like Gill can, or the iffy-looking flail of Marnus Labuschagne with such deliveries.
At one level as he turned away after the ball had handed him, Cummins had this pretty smile as he appeared throughout at Reddy. Nearly appreciative or maybe a self-referential message that he must cook dinner up one thing else.
And he did, in fact. The bouncers started to bend again in at Reddy, who managed to swerve away on the final on the spot, as he did within the 68th over. Scott Boland hit him close to the arm as soon as within the 89th over, making him flinch in ache. Reddy’s response on each events was fairly telling.
Right here is the place the counter-attacking statement-making urges come to the fore. He charged Cummins, who in fact is a rattling good bowler who knew what was coming and had let slip one other bounce, curving in even additional and it nearly slipped previous Reddy’s head and down leg facet. Each the batsman and the bowler smiled this time.
Reddy’s response to Boland was considerably comparable. He went for the reverse ramp, as a result of why not! There may be this streak in him seen all through this sequence every time he has been ‘attacked’ by the bowlers; reflexively he likes to place them again underneath the kosh. That shot didn’t come off, however a couple of balls later, arrived a resplendent off-drive, with a excessive left elbow and the accompanying jazz.
Cummins would amp up the bouncer assault once more and hit him simply after lunch within the arm within the 74th over. Not like the pre-lunch session, Cummins didn’t comply with up with the nip-backers however would take a look at him every now and then with the whistler within the off-stump channel.
Reddy was overwhelmed a few instances, and as soon as scooped out an edgy aerial drive over mid-off. Earlier than that spell ended, Cummins rapped him on the pad with a nip-backer nevertheless it was too excessive for the lbw attraction to be held, and the Cummins menace was over in the interim.
If there was one Indian batsman who should have made Nathan Lyon really feel his age on this sequence, it’s been Nitish Reddy. He has been dominating the offspinner proper from the Perth Take a look at; charging, driving, chopping. Saturday on the MCG was no totally different. Initially, he wasn’t fairly as much as the pitch when working down the monitor, however he went by with the pictures. As soon as that hazard handed, and he had settled in, Lyon’s probabilities stored fading out.
Not that he didn’t maintain making an attempt with totally different challenges. After a chat with Cummins, within the 94th over, Lyon had stored a deep level and a deepish backward level: ‘There’s a hole proper close to you, if you wish to minimize, you may however there isn’t a actual reward of a boundary there’.
The tempo stored various: 90.3kmph one ball to 85.4 subsequent and 87.6 to comply with. Reddy went for it nonetheless. He thought of a minimize however determined towards it, he went for a faucet to backward level and when that ultimate ball arrived, a lot fuller, Reddy tailored to do what that size demanded of him: a scoop drive over covers to untenanted areas to choose up a 4 and transfer to 77.
Quickly, off Mitch Marsh, he unfurled a help-along flick that eluded the diving Mitch Starc and ran to the boundary. It was adopted with a punchy on-the-up shot to the cover-point boundary to maneuver into the 80s however a rain interruption affected that movement. A stalemate adopted on the resumption with simply 13 runs in 10 overs as Washington Sundar neared 50, Reddy hovered in the long run 80s and India inched ahead.
Quickly, although, Sundar fell to an over-spun bouncy turner from Lyon and dramatic suspense re-entered the sector. Can he get that hundred or not? He went for a giant heave towards Boland that cleared mid-off and he moved to 99. He needed to take only one, however indecisiveness between him and a speeding Bumrah meant they crossed over with Reddy holding his helmeted head on the silliness of dropping strike.
Subsequent over, his worry got here by as Bumrah was nicked off by Cummins, who had introduced himself again precisely for that. However Siraj held out for the following three balls and the last-ball compact defence introduced out a smile and a thumbs-up from Reddy.
After which got here the second with the sweetest shot possible and completely befitting to the event of a maiden Take a look at century: an on-the-up dreamy punchy lofted straight hit. He crossed over, obtained down on his proper knee, propped his helmet on the bat deal with, and pointed his index finger to the skies. Within the stands, his father broke down. Within the center, his son broke Australia’s again.
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