On Saturday, the batsmen of Team India had no answers to tackle the Australian pace trio of Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc in Adelaide. The Australian bowlers came up with one of their best bowling performances to restrict India to a record-breaking 36 all-out in the first Test of teh four-match series, their lowest ever score in Test innings.
Their previous lowest total was 42 all out in the Lord’s Test against England on June 20, 1974. This is also the fifth-lowest total overall, and the lowest total by any team in the past 65 years. The Indian fans were left shell-shocked by what they were witnessing on Saturday morning, and soon after Australia chased down teh target of 90 quite comfortably, there were calls for the ouster of India coach Ravi Shastri.
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Many former cricketers reacted with surprise at the way the Indian batting collapsed on Day 3, after looking like the better side in the first two days. However, legendary Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar, also took to social media and expressed his dismay to India’s loss. He was, however, a lot more circumspect and said that this is what the beauty of Test cricket was, that despite a team having a upper hand can lose a game after being outclassed by the opponent.
With the way India batted & bowled in the 1st innings, they were in the driver's seat, but the Aussies came back really hard this morning.
That is the beauty of Test cricket.
It’s NEVER over till it’s over. India was outclassed in the 2nd half. Congratulations to Australia!— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) December 19, 2020
Sachin Tendulkar had tweeted, “With the way India batted & bowled in the 1st innings, they were in the driver’s seat, but the Aussies came back really hard this morning. That is the beauty of Test cricket. It’s NEVER over till it’s over. India was outclassed in the 2nd half. Congratulations to Australia!”
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The pace attack was led by Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins who scalped all the 9 wickets of the visitors. India collapsed from 9/1 at the start of Day 3 to 36/9 in 21 overs. Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins, who took 4 wickets on the day said that it was one of the best that he has seen his team bowl.
Talking about the game during a chat with Channel 7, Cummins said, “It was just one of those days where everything came off, everything we tried worked. Last year in Headingley first innings, we had a similar day out. Today and then are by far the best I’ve seen us bowl.”.
