In front of a capacity MCG, 19-year-old Sam Konstas went after a modern-day pace great. Jasprit Bumrah and India were briefly stunned as debutant Konstas managed a 65-ball 60 on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test.
"It's exciting for me obviously, I like doing that, putting pressure back on the bowlers and hopefully it pays off in the next innings," the teenage batter said.
"I reckon maybe 20-30 years ago, people were probably saying defend a lot, just about all day but I think for new generation, there are new shots," Konstas said after a memorable innings that included a couple of sixes in Bumrah's first spell.
The right-hander, who has made a name playing for New South Wales, was brought in to replace a rather jittery Nathan McSweeney and present a "different challenge to India". Evidently, he understood the assignment quite well.
The baby-faced player also had a brief but not-so-friendly chat with one of his childhood heroes and a giant of the game, Virat Kohli. But what stood out was the kind of brazenness he displayed in handling Bumrah that very few have dared to in the last six-seven years.
"Yeah, definitely premeditated especially with the pace but just trying to keep my head still and just watch it as hard on my back. But yeah, got a few away today and changed the field, which was good, and then trying to bolster my zones," Konstas explained.
But there is method to the madness, he insisted, and was quite dismissive of the fear of failure.
"I think it probably will look silly if I do get out, but I worked pretty hard on that shot and I feel like it's probably a safe shot for me really," he said of his hits against Bumrah.
"But I think that's the beauty about being young. It may be a bit naive, but I'm just trying to put pressure back on the bowlers, the best way I think is and yeah, good to get a few runs today," he added.
Despite his confidence, Konstas is also respectful of what a bowler of Bumrah's calibre is capable of doing.
"He's a legend of the game obviously. So I was trying to put a bit of pressure on him and it paid off today. I think I am always challenging myself, trying to bring the best out of me," said Konstas, who has learnt his cricket under former Bangladesh first-class player Tahmid Islam.
