Melbourne, Dec 28: Bad light and drizzle forced for tea to be taken early on day three of Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.

Before that, an unbroken 105-run stand between Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar took India to 326/7 in 97 overs as they trail Australia by 148 runs.

It was a brilliant session for India, who scored 82 runs in 24 overs for the loss of no wicket. Reddy stood up under pressure to hit an impressive 85 not out – his first Test fifty.

Reddy is now just 15 runs away from a maiden Test century. He has found excellent support from Washington Sundar, who is 40 not out off 115 balls and has done hard yards to stay at the crease.

With the pitch flattening out, Australia weren’t able to make any decisive strikes with the second new ball, as Reddy and Sundar ensured India also averted follow-on.

The second session began with Reddy and Sundar rotating strike consistently against the old ball, before Australia immediately took the second new ball. Reddy, who impressed again with his punchy drives and keeping the scoreboard moving, reached his first Test fifty by unfurling a lofted drive over cover point for four off Mitchell Starc and recreating a popular scene of film actor Allu Arjun from Telugu movie ‘Pushpa’.

Shortly after, India reached the magic number of 275, which meant the follow-on was averted, leading to cheers by fans in the stadium. Such was the ease of run-scoring with the second new ball that Sundar even got four runs while running between the wickets against Starc.

After India went past 300, the first instance of this happening after the Chennai Test against Bangladesh, Reddy struck a picture-perfect straight drive down the ground off the latter for a boundary, before using his wrists gloriously to smash Lyon over extra cover for another four. From the other end, Sundar got his first boundary by whacking a short and wide ball from Starc on the backfoot through cover.

Reddy got back-to-back boundaries off Mitchell Marsh, with some slice of luck in his way – Starc’s dive fell short of saving the ball, while Lyon slipped near the fence and right foot got in touch with boundary cushion, before rain and bad light forced players to come off the field in a session going in India’s kitty, thanks to Reddy and Sundar being together for 32.1 overs.

Brief Scores: Australia 474 in 122.4 overs (Steve Smith 140; Jasprit Bumrah 4-99) lead India 326/7 in 97 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 85 not out, Yashasvi Jaiswal 82; Scott Boland 3-49, Pat Cummins 2-86) by 148 runs

(IANS)

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