Australia's new 19-year-old Test recruit Sam Konstas put on an audacious display of batting in the first half-hour of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, ramping Jasprit Bumrah for three boundaries in an over.
Konstas was called up to replace Nathan McSweeney, who had also made his debut earlier in this series. The young right-handed opener has made waves in age-group and domestic cricket, even scoring a run-a-ball hundred against the touring Indians in a pink-ball warm-up game in the middle of the ongoing series.
The 19-year-old took strike ahead of the experienced Usman Khawaja as Australia won the toss and decided to bat first in front of a packed MCG crowd. After playing and missing thrice in the first over bowled by Bumrah, Konstas showed what he has been picked for, or at least attempted to, in the second.
Konstas got off the mark off the eighth ball he faced, nudging a ball around his hips for a couple. Three balls later, he attempted a reverse scoop off a good length ball by Bumrah, missing it. Fortunately for him, the ball missed his stumps. To prove that it wasn't a one-off, Konstas attempted another one four balls later, this time off a wider ball outside off, missing again.
Taking down Bumrah one ramp at a time
Two missed reverse scoops and a couple of unconvincing charges down the track in the first 20 balls of his Test career might have deterred Konstas from going again, one would have imagined, but he wasn't done.
On the first ball of the seventh over, Konstas attempted another ramp, this time the conventional one over fine leg and connected, getting it over the keeper for a boundary. Bumrah promptly adjusted his line and length, bowling full at the stumps the very next ball, but Konstas was growing in confidence. He attempted a reverse ramp for the third time in the innings and connected again, getting it to sail over the slips for a maximum, the first one Bumrah has conceded in Test cricket in nearly four years.
Konstas repeated the shot for almost the same result three balls later, with the ball touching the grass and the boundary rope together for it to be adjudged a four.
In the space of five deliveries, he took down Bumrah for 14 runs, four more than his bowling average in this series coming into this game.
The reactions, understandably, were wild.
