IND vs AUS 4th Test Melbourne weather: Nitish Kumar Reddy was the star for India on what could have been another difficult day for the visitors in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Nitish, who is on his maiden Test tour to Australia, scored a masterful hundred as his unbeaten 105 carried India from 191/6 to 358/9 at the end of the third day.
Bad light and rain forced stumps more than an hour early and had intervened earlier in the second session too. The visitors were up against the walls at the start of the day and more so after the wickets of Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja in the first session.
Nitish and Washington Sundar put up a 127-run stand for the eighth wicket as they produced a valiant fight in the face of the Australians and gave hope of saving the Test, which was further fueled by rain. How is the weather for Day 4 of the Boxing Day Test and will it rain on the penultimate day? Check here.
According to Accuweather, there are no chances of rain on Sunday, December 29. The match will begin at 10 AM local time, half an hour early due to the overs lost due to rain on Day 3. While the weather is expected to be cloudy, there is no rain predicted throughout the day on Sunday in Melbourne. Moreover, there is no rain expected on Monday, the fifth day of the match too.
This shall pave the way for a result with two full days of action. Despite Nitish's heroic efforts, Australia still hold the aces to win the Test. The visitors are still trailing by 116 more runs and have only one wicket in hand. The Aussies would look to get the final wicket and then post a challenging total to lure the Indian team to go for it and try and get the wickets.
Coming to Nitish, he smashed his first Test ton and became the third-youngest Indian to hit a hundred in Australia. At 21y and 214d, Reddy is the third youngest Indian to hit a hundred in Australia. Only India legend Sachin Tendulkar (18y 253d) and Rishabh Pant (21y 91d) are younger Indians to hit a ton in Australia.