Australia captain Pat Cummins is not only a great cricketer but a skilled footballer as well. Cummins showed his football skills during the second Test between Australia and India in Adelaide when he saved a certain boundary with his boot.
During the last ball of the 31st over, Pat Cummins bowled a full ball on the stumps. The batter Nitish Kumar Reddy responded with a brilliant straight drive and the ball looked certain to reach the boundary as it struck the bat.
However, Cummins stuck his right boot in between his followthrough as the ball didn’t go past him. It looked like a certain boundary from the way it was struck. But the Australian captain showed some excellent football skills to stop the ball from reaching the boundary.
Watch: Nitish Kumar Reddy stuns Jasprit Bumrah with unreal reverse scoop six off Scott Boland
Watch: Pat Cummins shows his football skills and saves a certain boundary
How’s that for a save from Pat Cummins?#AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/Fby96DebRu
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 6, 2024
It resulted in a dot ball as Cummins and Reddy shared a laugh later on. The Australian captain is known for his athleticism and he once again proved it right. Alongside being an excellent fast bowler, he is an athletic fielder as well.
Pat Cummins and Nitish Kumar Reddy have played for the same team in the IPL previously. During IPL 2024, both of them played together for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Pat Cummins was the captain of the team.
In the upcoming IPL season as well, both the players will be sharing the same dressing room as they will be playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Both of them were retained by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2025 Auction.
Pat Cummins makes a solid comeback
After a poor Test match in Perth, Pat Cummins came back well in Adelaide and returned figures of 2-41 in 12 overs in the first innings of the match. He firstly removed the dangerous Rishabh Pant off a snorter on 21 as he had him caught by Marnus Labuschagne.
Later in India’s innings, Cummins dismissed Jasprit Bumrah as he had him caught by Usman Khawaja at first slip. He took the new ball with Mitchell Starc and it immediately paid dividends. Cummins returned with a disappointing performance in Perth with figures of 2-67 and 1-86 across two innings.
Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar Reddy top-scored for India in the innings with a fine counter-attacking 42 off 54 balls which included 3 fours and 3 sixes. Reddy’s crucial knock down the order propelled India to 180 in their first innings.
Australia restrict India to 180
Earlier, India won the toss and Rohit Sharma elected to bat first. The Men in Blue made three changes to their winning eleven in Perth. Skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Ravichandran Ashwin were back in the team replacing Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, and Washington Sundar.
India had the worst possible start with Jaiswal being removed off the first ball of the match. A brief partnership between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill followed but the batting line-up crumbled as soon as Rahul got out.
The middle order didn’t add much to the score as Mitchell Starc wreaked havoc with the moving pink ball. Reddy and Ashwin contributed useful runs down the order as India reached a respectable score.