After close to 50 overs on another hot Mumbai day, Andhra's time on the field had finally come to a close, and that's not counting the 88 they delivered yesterday. Their tired bodies were on auto-pilot when Hanuma Vihari paused just before heading into the dressing room. He stepped aside, broke into applause and asked Nitish Kumar Reddy to lead the team off.
Reddy picked up five wickets, his second in first-class cricket, in the Ranji Trophy clash against Mumbai at the Sharad Pawar Academy. Among his dismissals on the first day were Ajinkya Rahane for a first-ball duck and Shreyas Iyer after a free-flowing 48.
Brought on as the second change bowler in the 12th over, Reddy struck in his sixth over dismissing Jay Bista and Rahane off successive balls. While Rahane's lbw call was contentious, it was still pretty much the perfect inswinger, full length, with prodigious movement in the air creating problems for the new batter.
"I bowled a lot of outswingers [to Bista and Bhupen Lalwani] and tested their patience," Reddy said on Friday evening. "I did not bowl any inswingers from the start of the innings. So [Hanuma] Vihari and Ricky [Bhui, captain] came to me and asked me to get the sharp inswing [going]. 'Let it be full toss or yorker, but you should hit the pad,' they said. I just came and delivered that, and it worked. In this game, it was first inswinger.
"We actually planned the bouncers for Shreyas, but were leaking too many runs. That's when we came to the normal plan and we bowled full [from around the wicket], and it worked," Reddy said of Iyer's wicket, caught by the wicketkeeper.
On Saturday, he had Tanush Kotian and Shams Mulani caught at slip to complete the five-for and leave Mumbai on 316 for 8. Vihari had grassed Mulani at first slip a ball before he pouched one to signal the celebrations for Reddy. Andhra, however, had to wait a further 37.4 overs as the last two wickets for Mumbai added 79.
Reddy rose through the ranks for Andhra as an opening batter, primarily. He batted No. 3 in the Vinoo Mankad Under-19 tournament in 2018-19. He opened for India Green in the Under-19 Challenger Trophy that same season. He turned up at No. 3 or 4 for Andhra as well at the senior level. At the same time, he kept working hard on his fast bowling until eventually a decision had to be made.
"In my Under-16 days, I bowled with the new ball and was the opening batter," he said. "I got plenty of runs and picked up wickets too. But as I went along, I found it hard to open the batting as well as bowling - padding up after bowling a lot of overs, I felt it affected my concentration."
A conversation with his coaches led him to shift down the order and contribute in both the facets. Like picking up five wickets against Maharashtra in December 2022 or scoring 66 batting at No. 7 against Delhi in January 2023.
"It is hard that allrounders do all the jobs - fielding, batting and bowling," Reddy, who classifies himself as a batting allrounder, said. "It is really hard. Hardik Pandya is doing brilliant; and even Ben Stokes. So I just admire them, enjoy seeing them and I like them."
Sunrisers Hyderabad selected Reddy for his base price of INR 20 lakh in the auction ahead of IPL 2023, where he played two matches but returned wicketless and did not get to bat.
"There are a lot of differences in domestic cricket and the IPL, not in terms of the game itself but in terms of preparations levels," he said. "There will be a crowd in the IPL while not so much here [in domestic cricket]. In the IPL I was at deep point. Bhuvaneshwar [Kumar] is bowling. The batsman just sliced the ball.
"In domestic cricket, we hear the sound of the ball hitting bat and [know whether] it is timed well or not. We will accordingly chase the ball in that direction. But in the IPL, I did not hear the sound. I just ran ahead, thought it was mistimed but eventually missed it. I couldn't hear the sound off the bat due to the crowd. There are a lot of things to learn."
Andhra were 98 for 3 after day two, trailing Mumbai's first innings score of 395 by 297. With plenty of time left in the game, there's chance for Reddy to earn more applause perhaps with a batting show.