Key events
The Konstas blitzkrieg drew an extraordinary response from his cricket hero Virat Kohli who veered across three lanes of traffic to put the shoulder into the youngster.
Although Kohli tried to claim it as the teenager’s fault and Usman Khawaja played peacemaker, Kohli has been clipped 20% of his match fee – a small price to pay for an epic display of petulance. Konstas himself shrugged off the incident as “just cricket”…
Watch the Konstas highlights package with this as your soundtrack…
Here’s how local media saw the Konstas Kaos at the MCG…
For those who came in late, here’s how Geoff Lemon bottled the lightning of day one…
Angus Fontaine
Greetings cricket fans! Welcome to day two of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Day one was a lot. Blast furnace heat across Victoria had wildfires raging across the state and sparked a batting inferno at the MCG as a cool 19-year-old opening batter from Sydney made his Test debut on cricket’s biggest stage, scorching his name into history and giving Australia the edge on day one of this crucial fourth Test.
Sam Konstas, a brash teenager with just a handful of first-class games behind him, lit up the MCG with a display of batting pyrotechnics that had even the great Sunil Gavaskar proclaiming: “we are witnessing the future of Test cricket.”
As Jack Snape captured yesterday, it was a triumph of the unorthodox. Ramp shots, reverse scoops, paddle slaps, murderous square cuts, slog sweeps. After playing and missing at five of his first six deliveries in Test cricket, Konstas went crazy as only callow youth can. It sparked a display of petulance from the King himself, as Virat Kohli initiated a midpitch spat after deliberately shoulder-charging the young Australian.
Slammin’ Sam’s innings lasted scarcely an hour and 65 balls but produced 60 of the most scintillating runs ever seen by a debut batter. Even the great Jasprit Bumrah, India’s weapon of mass destruction in this series, was battered out of the attack as Konstas bamboozled the Indian bowlers and gave Australia a crucial early ascendency.
Bumrah, who had not been hit for a six in 25 Tests across four years, was lifted into the grandstand twice inside an hour by Konstas. And yet, Bumrah returned later in the day to rip through Australia’s middle-order with three key wickets and put India back into the contest with Australians going to stumps at 311 for 6.
Day two should be another ripper. Play starts at 10.30am AEST so batten ‘em down and buckle ‘em up because it is GAME ON in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
