India dismissed for its lowest total in Test cricket
India suffered the ignominy of being restricted to its lowest-ever total in Test cricket, collapsing to 36 for 9 in a terminated second innings against Australia on the third morning of the Day/Night first Test, in Adelaide, on Saturday.
India's lowest score earlier was 42 at the Lord's in 1974 against England, known in Indian cricket parlance as the 'Summer of 42'.
Australia were 15 for no loss from five overs at the dinner break. Mattew Wade was batting on 14 with Joe Burns, yet to open his account.
To make matters worse, star pacer Mohammed Shami's series could well be over due to a wrist injury, sustained by a short delivery from Pat Cummins, which could potentially be a fracture.
Shami was unable to continue and the Indian innings was terminated at 36 for 9 in 21.2 overs.
After a decent 53-run first innings lead, India now face a humiliating defeat with only 89 runs to defend.
At one stage, India were reduced to 26 for 8 and looked like equalling the lowest-ever Test score of 26 by New Zealand, but Hanuma Vihari's boundary helped them evade entry into the dark pages of cricketing history.
On Saturday morning, India's batting was completely exposed by the extra bounce generated by Australian pacers, who bowled every delivery on the off-middle channel after landing on the seam.
In an inexplicable collapse, their much-vaunted batsmen fell like nine pins, not a single one able to reach double figures.
Once night-watchman Jasprit Bumrah (2) was out in the first over, the home pacers, led by Josh Hazlewood (5-3-8-5) and Pat Cummins (10.2-4-21-4), literally decimated the tourists and caused lasting damage to their already bruised egos.
The likes of Mayank Agarwal (9), Cheteshwar Pujara (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (0) were all out in similar fashion.
All the deliveries were almost identical, angled in, which forced the batsmen to jab at them and just bounced a wee bit more. They deviated a shade taking outside edges to Tim Paine behind the stumps.
Skipper Virat Kohli (4) was dismissed in the manner he used to get out in England back in 2014, trying to drive a delivery on the fifth stump and caught at gully.
What India's batsmen didn't factor in was the pitch suddenly becoming livelier with extra bounce.