Hours after India's pacer all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy slammed his maiden century against Australia in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Saturday, the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) announced a cash award of ₹25 lakh for him.
The young batter scored a resilient unbeaten 105 runs and led India to 358 for nine on the third day at MCG.
With this achievement, he also became the third youngest Indian after Sachin Tendulkar and Rishabh Pant to score a century on Australian soil and also the highest scorer.
The Andhra Pradesh all-rounder, at 21 years and 216 days, became the third-youngest Indian to score a maiden Test century on Australian soil. Sachin Tendulkar (18 years and 256 days in 1992) and Rishabh Pant (21 years and 92 days, 2019) are the only two younger Indian players to have scored maiden hundreds in Australia.
"It is a fortunate day and a happiest moment for the Andhra Cricket Association. We are very happy that a boy from Andhra has been picked for the Test format and international T20 format. As an honour, on behalf of the Andhra Cricket Association, ₹25 lakh prize money is being given to Nitish Kumar Reddy," NDTV quoted ACA President Kesineni Sivanath as saying.
For the eighth wicket partnership, Nitish Reddy shared a crucial 127-run partnership with Washington Sundar (50 off 162 balls).
Cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar praised the young batter from Andhra Pradesh for his remarkable innings and described Reddy's performance as one of the greatest Test knocks in India's Test history.
Reacting to Reddy's powerful knock, Bolland replied to a query from PTI after the day's play and said, "Yeah, obviously he's playing really nicely. Coming in down the middle, it's a lower-order, but he's sort of trying to put the pressure back on us. And he's playing nicely."
"He played really well. He's been a young guy from India who's come through and strikes the ball really well. It looks like he's got pretty much every shot in the book," he added.
With agency inputs.
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