Nitish Reddy has scored a century in the ongoing Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. He scored a century in 171 balls by hitting a four off Boland's ball. This is the first century of his international career. He scored more than fifty runs for the first time in a Test and converted that innings into a century. With this, Nitish Kumar has become the third youngest Indian to score a century in a Test in Australia. Only Sachin Tendulkar and Rishabh Pant are ahead of him. This century is also special for Nitish because his father Mutyala Reddy is present in the gallery and is watching this match. Nitish also became emotional after scoring a century in front of his father.
Nitish Kumar Reddy 3rd youngest Indian to score a Test century in Australia: Nitish scored a century in Australia at the age of 21 years 216 days. Sachin scored a century in Sydney in 1992 at the age of 18 years 253 days. At the same time, Pant scored a century in Sydney in 2019 at the age of 21 years and 91 days. After this comes Nitish. At the same time, Dattu Fadkar is in fourth place. He scored a century in Adelaide in 1948 at the age of 22 years and 42 days.
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In the 114th over of the Indian innings, Nitish was at the non-striker end with a score of 99. Jasprit Bumrah was on strike. Pat Cummins was bowling in this over. On the third ball of the over, Cummins got Bumrah caught in the slip and gave the ninth blow. After this, when Siraj came, Indian fans were scared whether he would save the next three balls of Cummins. Siraj defended well and then Nitish got the strike in the next over. Nitish then created history.
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Nitish came out to bat at number eight in this innings. Earlier, it has happened only twice that a player younger than Nitish has scored a century in Tests while batting at number eight or below. Bangladesh's Abul Hasan did this at the age of 20 years 108 days and India's Ajay Ratra did this at the age of 20 years 150 days.
Also Read: Most runs by an Indian batsman in a Test series while batting at number 7, below
Nitish celebrated in a special way after scoring a century. He sat down on his knees and hung his helmet on the handle of the bat and pointed one hand towards the sky. During this, his eyes were closed. Nitish also celebrated in a special way after scoring a half-century. He celebrated in the famous 'Jhukega Nahi' style from the film 'Pushpa'. He showed Allu Arjun's style with the bat. Nitish really did not bow down in front of the Australian bowlers and faced them bravely. During this, the ball also hit his body, but he did not give up.
Nitish Reddy got a chance to debut in the red ball format for India in this series. He took full advantage of this opportunity and established a different identity with his performance. In the first Test against Australia, this 21-year-old batsman scored 41 and 38* runs. At the same time, in the second match played in Adelaide, he scored 42-42 runs in both the innings. He scored 16 runs in the first innings of the third Test at Gabba, while he did not bat in the second innings. Now by scoring a half-century in Melbourne, he has proved that he is also ready to come up in the batting order. Nitish is currently the highest run-scorer for India in the current Border Gavaskar Trophy. He has so far scored 284 runs in six innings at an average of 71.
Also Read: List of Indian batsmen who scored centuries in Boxing Day Test matches
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