Worst day for Indian Cricket #Adelaide36Allout

This is not the best Australian team – the bowling attack of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood,  Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Nathan Lyon did not sound – Jeff Thomson, Max Walker, Dennis Lillee,  Len Pascoe, Rod Hogg, Alderman,  Mcdermott, Glenn Mcgrath, Bret Lee  .. .. but today for  the devout Indian Cricket fan, utterly devastating – depressed, the ignominy is complete.  Never expected this.  How sad to see a Scorecard of :

4, 9, 2, 0, 4, 0, 8, 4, 0, 4, 1 .. ..  +  0 extras  = 36 / 9 (1 retired hurt)

 

Was reading that David Warner hitched a ride on a private jet to Melbourne on Saturday to avoid being stranded in the NSW capital for next week's Boxing Day Test if Victoria shuts its border to people from Sydney due to a virus outbreak.  Fellow Test squad member Sean Abbott also headed to Melbourne early, driving to Canberra to catch a plane, but Warner took a more direct route.  .. .. and sometime during the match there was some suggestion that this Aussie team is a much weakened one – and the way they folded in the 1st innings did suggest that there were interesting probabilities, to put mildly, expectations of an Indian Win !!

As Jasprit Bumrah completed the day as ‘night-watchman’ after Prithvi Shaw’s exit thought the match was intricately balanced.   There were some thoughts on - What sort of target could Australia chase? The scene set for Virat Kohli to sign off the tour with a defining innings? The third day in Adelaide promised so much - in many ways it delivered, but in scarcely believable fashion as Josh Hazlewood - who reached 200 Test wickets - and Pat Cummins dismantled India for their lowest-ever Test total with Australia securing victory before the floodlights were even needed. 

When play started, it was totally different -  Aussies bowled to a plan, nagging length Every good ball took an edge, every edge went to fieldsman, every fieldsman caught it. Five went to wicketkeeper Tim Paine, the safest hands. None needed a dive or other acrobatics;  they came and sat in their hands.   Even the one catch that was dropped was re-caught, by the tryo Cameron Green lunging forward from gully and clutching the rebound to his chest as he rolled. It had to be Virat Kohli, and it was.     Pat Cummins was breathtaking and on the way took his 150th Test wicket, average 21. Josh Hazlewood saw him and upped him one, and now has 200 Test wickets, average 25. To make matters worse, star pacer Mohammed Shami's series could well be over due to a wrist injury from a short ball from Pat Cummins, which could potentially be a fracture. Shami could not continue and the Indian innings was terminated at 36 for 9 in 21.2 overs. 

Pat Cummins figures of 10.2-4-21-4 were truly upstaged by Josh Hazlewood 5-3-8-5.

 

To take solace that this is India’s lowest ever but not the ‘lowest ever’ would be foolish as this would rankle for long.  Way back in Mar 1955 at Auckland, England scoring 246 won by an innings and twenty runs.  NZ scored 200 in their first essay but were shot out for 26, which remain the lowest ever.

Team	Score	Overs	Opposition	Ground	Date
New Zealand	26	27	England	Auckland	25.03.1955
south Africa	30	18.4x5	England	Port Elizabeth	13.2.1896
south Africa	30	12.3	England	Birmingham	14.6.1924
south Africa	35	22.4x5	England	Cape Town	1.4.1899
Australia	36	23	England	Birmingham	29.05.1902
south Africa	36	23.2	Australia	Melbourne	12.2.1932
India	36	21.2	Australia	Adelaude	17.12.2020

 

1971 was a great year for India as Ajit Wadekar led them to Series victories against the mighty West Indies and England.  3 years later, India had arrived in England as one of the best teams in Test cricket.   They had beaten England at home and away after their undefeated three-year streak. They had also managed to defeat West Indies at their den.  The team led by Ajit Wadekar read :  Sunil Gavaskar ;  Farokh Engineer †;  Ajit Wadekar (c); Gundappa Viswanath; Brijesh Patel; Eknath Solkar ; Syed Abid Ali ; Madan Lal; Erapalli Prasanna ; Bishan Bedi  & Bhagwath Chandrasekhar.  India lost the first Test at on a wet, green Old Trafford pitch despite Sunil Gavaskar’s long-awaited hundred — the first since his maiden tour — and a quality all-round show from Syed Abid Ali. The 113-run defeat on a seamer-friendly track did not look that bad — India, after all, were nowhere close to England in terms of a seam attack. But at Leeds they were bowled out for a dismal 42, which had remained our lowest all these years – now History has been rewritten.  

Today becomes the first instance of  all of Test cricket that all 11 batsmen, and extras, couldn't cross single-figures in an innings. The highest score was Mayank Agarwal who made 9. 

Worst day for Indian Cricket  #Adelaide36Allout

 

Sad fan – S. Sampathkumar
19.12.2020