Sam Konstas smashed a blazing hundred in the first session of the first unofficial Test between Australia A and India A in Lucknow.
Batting first, Australia got off to a rollicking start, scoring 198 for the first wicket. Australia Test opener Konstas scored a hundred off 122 balls with the help of 10 fours and three sixes. This is his third first-class hundred, having scored twin centuries in a Sheffield Shield match in October last year. Konstas' batting partner, Campbell Kellaway, was also looking well set for a hundred, but he fell for 88 off 97 balls, an innings laced with 10 fours and two sixes.
Konstas became only the third Australian opener this century to score a hundred in the first session of a first-class match after David Warner and Shane Watson.
He was eventually dismissed for 109 off 144 balls, bowled by Harsh Dubey, the highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy last season. Konstas' wicket led to a mini-collapse for Australia as they slipped from 198-0 to 224-4.
1st unofficial Test, India A vs Australia A
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Sam Konstas rebounds after poor form
In December last year, Konstas, 19, became the youngest Australian opener to hit a Test fifty, having scored a 65-ball 60 on debut against India in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, his career didn't take off as expected from thereon, with him scoring just 95 runs at an average of 11.87 in his next four matches. He struggled against the West Indies in a three-Test series in June-July, where he scored just 50 runs at 8.33. That average was the lowest by an Australian opener in a three-match Test series in 41 years.
Amid mounting pressure, Kontas's timely first-class hundred in challenging subcontinental conditions puts him back in contention to be one of Australia's openers for the upcoming Ashes.
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