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Reddy century digs India out of trouble on shortened day

Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar put up a 127-run eight-wicket stand to salvage India from a big deficit on rain-marred day three

Australia v India | Fourth Test | Day Three

A memorable maiden Test century by India rookie allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy dragged his team from a sizeable hole back into the reckoning as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series remains on a knife-edge.

India was eyeing a deficit in excess of 200 when they slumped to 7-221 in reply to Australia's 474 shortly before lunch on day three at the MCG but now have a chance to keep the margin in double digits heading into the last two days.

They resume tomorrow 115 in arrears with Reddy still at the wicket and likely to throw the bat in search of more runs in his breakthrough knock.

Sublime Reddy sends crowd wild with maiden century

Reddy, who made his debut in Perth and has emerged as his team's most consistent batter despite being deployed in the lower-order, combined with fellow allrounder Washington Sundar to forge a game-changing eighth-wicket stand of 127.

However, Reddy was within three runs of his hundred when Washington edged Nathan Lyon to slip and had added just two more to his total when India's second-last batter Jasprit Bumrah departed for a duck.

With heavy cloud engulfing the ground and floodlights blazing, Reddy looked helpless as Mohammed Siraj (Test batting average 4.8) survived three searing deliveries from Australia skipper Pat Cummins' over.

Like the gathering tempest, Australia's fielders closed in on the 21-year-old hoping to draw a panicked false stroke against Scott Boland but – having stoically defended two balls – Reddy calmly lifted the third to the mid-on boundary to a roar from 83,073 fans in attendance.

Among them were Reddy's father and uncle, who danced in delight as India's newest batting hero celebrated by dropping to one knee and placing his helmet atop the handle of his bat balanced on the historic turf before raising one arm to the glowering sky.

Minutes later umpires deemed it was too dark for Cummins to continue with his pace bowlers and players left the field before the heavens opened and play was abandoned with India 9-358 to which Reddy had contributed an unbeaten 105.

He had become just the fourth number-eight batter to post a century in Australia after Pakistan's Yasir Shah (at Adelaide in 2019-20), England's Matt Prior (SCG in 2010-11) and West Indies Gerry Alexander (SCG in 1960-61).

Reddy was listed to bat at seven in this match before India utilised Akash Deep as nightwatch on Friday evening, but it seems the new century maker's days in the bottom half of the order are limited.

His strokeplay in this series has been littered with aggressive blows largely because he's often found himself batting with the tail, but throughout his four-hour MCG innings to date he has shown the temperament and technique of a top-order player.

As was the case in Australia's innings when Steve Smith and Cummins put on the highest stand of the innings, India's salvage mission was mounted after the more recognised and more senior batters had failed to convert numerous starts.

On an MCG pitch that India's star bowler Bumrah had joked to rival skipper Pat Cummins resembled "a Christmas present to batters", Australia's bowlers acutely understood how difficult chiseling out set batters might be.

It was only the belated Yuletide gift of Yashasvi Jaiswal's wicket via an unforgiveable run out that prised open India's middle-order and they duly lost 3-6 in the space of 22 balls on Friday evening.

India's running between wickets hadn't improved when play resumed today, as Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja respectively survived narrow misses created by the pair's misunderstandings.

In the first, just four overs into the day with India still 300 in arrears, Jadeja (on four) was lucky to survive after a near replica of the Jaiswal disaster saw him halfway down the pitch before scurrying back to beat Cummins' throw.

That prompted an animated chat between the pair, which ended with Jadeja seemingly waving away his batting partner as Pant pleaded for greater circumspection.

Three overs later it was Pant who was responsible for near disaster as he knocked the ball barely the length of the pitch and immediately took off only to see Jadeja unmoved, and Pant's innings would have ended on 23 if Marnus Labuschagne had scored a direct hit.

But Pant's good fortune finally deserted him on 28 as he tried to manufacture scoring opportunities against Boland's stiflingly accurate attack.

Having pulled out of his batting stance almost as Boland reached his delivery stride, the Australia quick's displeasure was painfully apparent when Pant then attempted his falling-down ramp shot only to cop a stinging blow to the stomach.

Having dusted himself off and regained his breath, Pant attempted to repeat the stroke next ball and somehow skewed the ball off his bat's leading edge from where it ballooned obligingly into the hands of Lyon at deep third.

Wild sequence as India lose Pant

The sight of India presenting their opponents with another self-inflicted wicket was too much for ex-India captain Sunil Gavaskar who savaged Pant's effort as "stupid, stupid. Stupid" as he passed judgement from the ABC Radio commentary box.

Jadeja's removal nine overs later came in circumstances less extravagant but equally consequential as he succumbed to fellow finger spinner Lyon for the seventh time in their 18 Test match encounters.

Having battled more than an hour and a half for his 17, Jadeja was understandably angry with himself for not picking Lyon's quicker arm ball that skidded on from around the wicket and saw him adjudged lbw by umpire Michael Gough.

The India allrounder's decision to review the call came as a distinct afterthought, and he was already on his way to the dressing room as confirmation came the correct verdict had been delivered on-field.

At 7-221 and still 253 from Australia's distant first innings total, India fans were again confronted by their team potentially being forced to follow-on.

But even if Australia's tiring attack had managed to snaffle the remaining three wickets with the deficit still 200 or more there remained little chance they would have opted to immediately bowl again given the final Test starts at the SCG in just six days' time.

That was rendered moot as Reddy and Washington began their union that was initially defiant but grew increasingly dazzling as the second new ball failed to work its magic and the toil started to show on Australia's wearying attack.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal