This brilliant partnership is the reason that India is still alive in Boxing Day Test: Irfan Pathan

Washington Sunder and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
(Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Irfan Pathan lauded the defiant partnership between Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar which helped India muster a fightback from a precarious position on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Saturday, December 28.

After Ravindra Jadeja was dismissed in the 65th over, India needed another 54 runs to avoid the follow-on with three wickets remaining. Sundar and Reddy joined forces and stitched a memorable 127-run eighth-wicket partnership off 285 balls. While Sundar played with a safety-first approach, Reddy took the attack to the Aussie bowlers as India crawled their way back into the encounter.

Pathan was particularly impressed with the running between the wickets from the two young batters as they kept rotating the strike, not allowing the Aussies to build pressure on them. The boundaries also came at regular intervals as the duo showed tremendous resilience.

“That half-a-chance came when Washington Sundar played that shot on the leg side because the ball was pitching outside the leg stump, there was a nick of the bat and Smith was there ready in the slips. Apart from that, it was completely chanceless. The biggest thing is that there has never been an instance where the number 8 and 9 batsmen in the Indian team have played over 300 deliveries; this has never happened in history,” Pathan said, according to Star Sports.

“This brilliant partnership is the reason that India is still alive in this Test, because if both of them had not played 300 deliveries then Australia would have been in a dominating position. We would have been talking about how Australia would be looking forward to finishing the game on the 4th day itself, but these players have changed the situation.

“One played with aggression and composure and the other played with patience. The combination of these two was commendable and the running between the wicket between these two was amazing. As soon as they played the delivery with a soft hand they would run, and then there were boundaries coming in consistently; they were continuously rotating the strike,” he added.

Also Read: Nitish Reddy-Washington Sundar claim unique first-time record with their mammoth partnership in 147 years of Test cricket history

Sundar was dismissed by Lyon after scoring a 162-ball 50. Meanwhile, Reddy remained not out on 105 off 176 balls. The latter hit 10 fours and a sole six en route to his maiden international century. India are 116 runs behind Australia’s first innings score with one wicket in hand.