New Delhi, Dec 28: The Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) on Saturday announced a cash award of Rs 25 lakh for young Nitish Reddy, acknowledging his maiden Test century effort, which was crucial to India's fightback in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

The 21-year-old Reddy scored a resilient unbeaten 105 to steer India to 358 for nine on the third day of the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

"It is a fortunate day and a happiest moment for the Andhra Cricket Association. We are very happy that a boy from Andhra has been picked for the Test format and international T20 format. As an honour, on behalf of the Andhra Cricket Association, Rs 25 lakh prize money is being given to Nitish Kumar Reddy," (ACA) President Kesineni Sivanath said.

Reddy, who has been a standout performer in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, showed his grit again in the fourth Test, sharing a crucial 127-run partnership with Washington Sundar (50 off 162 balls).

Reddy’s remarkable innings was praised by cricketing legends with Sunil Gavaskar describing it as one of the greatest Test knocks in India's Test history.

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Bharuch (Gujarat) (PTI): Four workers died on Sunday after inhaling toxic fumes following gas leakage at a chemical plant at Dahej in Gujarat's Bharuch district, police said.

The victims fell unconscious after inhaling the toxic fumes leaking from a pipe at a production unit of the Gujarat Fluorochemicals Limited (GFL) at around 10 pm on Saturday, Dahej police station inspector BM Patidar said.

They were rushed to a private hospital in Bharuch. Three of them died at around 3 am on Sunday, while another one succumbed at 6 am, the official said.

"The incident occurred at around 10 pm when the four workers fell unconscious due to gas leakage from the pipe passing through the ground floor of the company's CMS plant. They were rushed to a private hospital where all four of them died," he said.

The bodies were sent for postmortem and further probe into the incident was underway, the official said.

The deceased have been identified as Rajesh Kumar (hailing from Gujarat), Mudrika Yadav (belonging to Jharkhand), Sushit Prasad and Mahesh Nandlal (both from Uttar Pradesh), police said.

GFL, Dahej, Deputy General Manager Jignesh Parmar told reporters that they will investigate the matter and a compensation of Rs 25 lakh would be paid to the kin of each of the deceased workers.

"The company and the management are saddened by the incident. We have promised to cooperate with legal authorities and we will investigate the matter and bring out our report," he said.

Sub Divisional Magistrate, Bharuch, Manisha Manani said three of the deceased were from other states.

"Four persons died due to gas leakage at the GFL plant near Ambeta village. The bodies have been sent to the civil hospital in Bharuch for post-mortem and an investigation is underway," Manani said.