The Indian cricket fans were nervous and up on the edge of their seats as they set their alarms for Day 3 of the first Test against Australia. A fine Saturday morning that should have been spent watching Cheteshwar Pujara grind away the Australian bowlers and Virat Kohli getting his maiden international ton in 2020 was instead a stuff of nightmares. Blown away.
Specific numbers have infamous associations in sports that fans would have never wanted in the first place. Ask any RCB fan and the number 49 – the lowest IPL total ever – will be a dark number. For Indians, the number 36 has entered the list, for it is the number of runs that could be raked up by them in their second innings in the Pink Ball Test at Adelaide. Team India were bowled out for just 36 – their lowest ever Test score – after some brilliant seam bowling from Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, who picked up 4 for 21 and 5 for 8 respectively. The horror show negated all the excellent work that the Indian bowlers had put in on Day 2, where they had garnered a lead as well, and the day ended on an anti-climactoc note as Australia, set 90 for a win, won the game with 8 wickets to spare even after starting the day on the backfoot.
The visitors, who were 62 runs ahead, at the start of the day, saw the innings slip slowly but surely out of their grasp as they failed to stand tall against some excellent fast bowling. Nightwatchman Jasprit Bumrah was the first casuality of the day as he chipped a return catch to Pat Cummins. The real game-changer was the wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara, however, after which there was no looking back for the home team.
The number three was forced to nick a ball that angled in but nipped away after pitching. This was the perfect line and length that could trouble the Indians, and Cummins was well aware of that. Josh Hazlewood, who was introduced in the 13th over of the innings, too followed the same template as Mayank Agarwal, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari and R Ashwin all fell to similar lengths.
Virat Kohli was dismissed as he tried to drive but ended up edging to gully while Wriddhimana Saha played one uppishly to mid wicket.
To make matters, and the Saturday morning, worse was that Mohammed Shami was hit on his bowling arm by a short ball from Pat Cummins. The Indian was taken for X-ray scans, and was unable to bowl in the second innings, putting a huge question mark on his availability for the remaining three Tests.
Set a target of 90, the Indian openers started off with intent as they smashed 70 in no time, with the Indian new ball bowlers Bumrah and Umesh Yadav erring in line and lengths. Though the Indians got the wickets of Matthew Wade and Marnus Labuschagne in quick time, it was not a cover-up for the batting display, which has put a stern question mark over their ability to play fats bowling.
The side now have a week to get over the mental scars ahead of the Boxing Day Test. This was just the second time that no batsman from a Test side has managed double figures in a test innings, and was also the lowest score in Tests in 65 years. The fact that Team India will be without Kohli for the last three Tests further puts the team under pressure.
Brief Scores: India 244 and 36 all out (Josh Hazlewood 5-8, Pat Cummins 4-21) lost to Australia 191 and 93/2 by 8 wickets