Test 4, day 3: Stumps
Nitish Reddy confirms his class, and creates a selection problem
(Screengrab of the Nitish Kumar Reddy leave that I wrote about here)
Amidst high drama, with clouds rolling over the MCG and the light fading fast, Nitish Kumar lofted the third ball of the 115th over, from Scott Boland, over mid on to the boundary to bring up his first Test century.
It took 52 deliveries for Reddy to move from 85 (119 balls), his score at tea, to the century. And it was riveting cricket all the way. Here is how it unfolded:
In the third over after tea, Washington Sundar punched a ball to Pat Cummins at mid off and took off for the single. Nitish Reddy responded instantly, and Sundar just made his ground before the direct throw broke the stumps.
“Impressive running,” said Adam Gilchrist in the commentary box. Which just goes to show that how a particular play is called depends on the outcome, and not on the play itself. But enough of sly-writing about the Jaiswal run out.
The early passages of post-tea play was marked by tight lines by the two Mitchs, Starc and Marsh. The free flow of runs at the tail end of the second session was stemmed and Reddy, who after a couple of flirts outside off, settled back into leaving on the fourth stump line where Starc consistently tested his skill and his patience. Australia ringed him around with point, cover, mid off, mid on, midwicket and square leg and Reddy, to his credit, played with circumspection where earlier he had batted with freedom.
The imminence of a personal landmark also seemed to weigh on Reddy, who was noticeably circumspect in his strokeplay early in the session. He progressed to the highest score by an Indian number eight in Australia through a series of singles.
With Australia bowling dry, the first ten overs of the final session produced just 13. To their credit, both batsmen held their nerve, and their composure. through the period. Sundar got to his personal landmark first, with another quick single to mid off 50 off 146 balls, with just the one four when he slammed a loosener from Starc to the point boundary before tea. And Reddy, next ball off Lyon, carved him to the backward point boundary in the first show of aggression after tea, to get within one big hit of a maiden century.
Boland was particularly brilliant in this period, with a relentless line and just enough variations in length to keep the batsmen on their toes. He even induced an inner edge from the well set Reddy that squirted to backward square for a single, passing inches away from the stumps.
In an anti-climax, with Reddy three shy of his century, Lyon finally produced the kind of delivery he is known for. Tossed up, with drift, hitting length and turning and bouncing to take Sundar’s edge high on the bat to the sole slip. The batsman was done by length that drew him forward, and bounce that left him helpless to keep it down. India 348/8, Sundar 50 off 162 and the partnership 127 off 285 balls.
With Bumrah for company and Siraj to follow, Reddy took to turning down singles Australia offered him. And the drama escalated when he lofted Boland’s last delivery, just clearing mid off and taking two to get him to 99 and, more to the point, taking him off strike.
Cummins promptly replaced Lyon to target Bumrah. And off the third ball of his over, Cummins struck, taking the edge of Bumrah’s defensive prod through to first slip for an easy catch. 390/5 India, Siraj in with three balls to face, and Reddy stranded on 99 at the other end as clouds rolled in over the MCG and the light weakened. Confronted with three slips, two gullies, a short leg and a silly point, Siraj held his nerve, and survived.
And then Reddy reached the landmark — and the roar from the MCG was deafening even through the filter of television. His wagonwheel, courtesy Cricinfo, is illuminating:
He got his runs predominantly on the off side, an indicator of how straight he played. And to go with the fluent strokeplay that got him 10 fours and a six, he also ran 36 singles, five twos and four threes. It was a proper Test innings, it was of the highest class, and given the circumstances it came in, it was one of the best innings by an Indian batsman in recent memory.
An over later, the umpires took the players off for light; Nitish walked back to back pats and congratulations from the Aussie fielders and an uproarious ovation from the capacity crowd.
I’ll upload this now, since I doubt play will resume today though there is still half an hour when I write this. India trails by 116 with the last wicket pair at the crease; it is all set up for an electric fourth day’s play.
Related thoughts: During the premature tea break, former coach Ravi Shastri made a point that amplifies what I wrote about in the session recap. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shastri said, has shown that he can, and should, bat in the top six. And if he does, India can go in to Sydney with a balanced team of five bowlers and six batsmen.
The question, though, is who is that top six? KL Rahul, Jashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and to an extent, Virat Kohli seal their slots. With Reddy, that is five — so who is the sixth? The obvious answer given the composition of the squad is Shubman Gill — but what do you then do with the designated skipper, Rohit Sharma?
The pragmatic call is that Sharma should bench himself. Then Rahul and Jaiswal open, Gill bats at three (with the coach telling him firmly to get with the program, that pretty twenties and thirties are not doing justice to his ability) and the rest of the batting lineup falls into place, with Reddy at five and Pant at six.
In the bowling, Jasprit Bumrah is the certainty. Equally certain is that Siraj needs to sit one out, with Prasidh Krishna the best replacement from among the available squad. The question of the other three depends on whether India wants to go in to Sydney with one spinner or two, and that in turn depends on the nature of the wicket at the SCG.
It’s a piquant problem to have, and how team India solves it will tell us much about the team’s priorities, and equally about a particular individual’s character. But all that is for the near future — in the present, the story is about how, on ‘moving day’, the balance of power shifted dramatically.
At start of play, the logical possibility was that Australia would work through the Indian innings in the first or, at worst, the second session and end with a lead of between 170-200 runs. The home side would then have a good two sessions, one today and the first one tomorrow, to bat their way to a 400 run lead and put India under pressure batting last.
The Nitish Reddy-Washington Sundar partnership torpedoed those possibilities, in two ways. First, they kept the Australian bowlers at bay for the first two sessions and beyond; second, they took huge chunks out of Australia’s possible lead. And, bonus, they made the Australian bowlers bowl a lot of overs (the two had gotten together in the 65th over), making the bowlers as leg weary as their Indian counterparts.
The shoe is now on the other foot — it is India that can feel relatively secure, and Australia that has to do all the running. The conundrum for the home side now is, how many runs do they need, and how quickly do they need it, to give themselves a chance to bowl India out?
The outlying possibility is a good bowling effort by India in the second innings and a collapse by Australia, which could well open up the possibility of an Indian win.
The most likely outcome now is a draw, though. That won’t help India in its fast-fading attempt to qualify for the World Test Championship final — but it means India get to go to the SCG with honors still intact, knowing that even a draw in the final Test maintains its stranglehold on the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
The biggest plus for India from today’s play is that it changes the mood, from the siege mentality consequent on being under the pump over the first two days to a more positive, even combative, outlook.