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The incident took place on the second ball of the 7th over of Australia’s first innings of the ongoing Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Sam Konstas hits Jasprit Bumrah for a reverse-scoop six. (Picture Credit: Screengrab)
19-year-old Sam Konstas made his Test debut for Australia on Thursday, December 26, and in his first innings itself he made a lot of headlines. The right-handed batter from New South Wales took Indian bowlers to the cleaners in the first session of Day 1’s play of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and slammed 60 runs from just 65 balls with the help of six fours and two sixes.
He opened his account by taking two runs on the eighth ball he faced, and then in the seventh over of the first day’s play, he hammered star Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah for a four and a six on the first two deliveries. Konstas, who failed to play a reverse scoop against the world No. 1 Test bowler in his first few balls, successfully managed to connect the ball on back-to-back deliveries.
The six that he smacked against the 31-year-old right-arm pacer on the second ball of the seventh over was the first six Bumrah conceded since the New Year Test in 2021.
In that match, Cameron Green scored a maximum against Bumrah, who has picked up 21 wickets in three matches played so far in the series.
The video of Konstas’ hitting a six off Bumrah’s bowling was shared by Australian broadcasters on social media platforms, and within no time it went viral on the internet.
Konstas collected a total of 14 runs from Bumrah’s fourth over of the match, and then in his sixth over, the right-handed batter once again hit him for two fours and one six to amass a total of 18 runs from six balls.
By hitting two sixes against Bumrah, Konstas equalled England’s white-ball captain Jos Buttler’s record of hitting the Indian speedster for two sixes in an innings in Tests.
Konstas, who replaced Nathan McSweeney in Australia’s playing XI for the ongoing Melbourne Test, completed his maiden Test fifty in 52 balls, and by crossing the 50-run mark, he also became the second youngest batter after Ian Craig to score a fifty for the Baggy Greens. Craig, who played 11 Test matches for Australia, was 17 years and 240 days old when he scored a half-century against South Africa in Melbourne (1953), whereas Konstas is 19 years and 85 days old on Thursday.
