“They did it so well last evening in those few overs. Strong scoring rate, good defence, and proactive batting. But what we’ve seen here is a disaster for Australia.
Follow Us
If Australia was humiliated during the Nagpur Test, Day 3 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium was disastrous. As Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne led the tourists to 61 for 1 at the end of Day 2, Australia was expected to capitalise on their early advantage and better attitude following the Nagpur debacle and set a lofty goal. But, a terrible collapse occurred when Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja worked their magic on the third afternoon, scooping up the last nine wickets in only 90 minutes.
India later won by a comfortable six-wicket margin, completing yet another three-day triumph against Australia. The loss, and especially the batting meltdown, left luminaries like Allan Border and Matthew Hayden stunned and enraged as they tore into the Pat Cummins-led team. Day 3 began with Ashwin opening the gates, and the rest of the Australian line-up dropped like nine pins. Australia were folded for 113 after starting the day at 61 for 1, with no further double-digit scores and three ducks.
Read more: ‘Bazball’: What is the England Test team’s new weapon?
“Well, I can’t believe what I’ve just witnessed here. What we’ve seen here is a disaster for Australia. They’ve gone way over the edge in terms of their aggressive play” former Australia opener Hayden said in a commentary. “These are world-class players, and they’ve got everything to win and everything to lose in this session,” he later added. “They did it so well last evening in those few overs. Strong scoring rate, good defence, and proactive batting. But what we’ve seen here is a disaster for Australia. They’ve gone way over the edge in terms of their aggressive play.”
Speaking on Fox Cricket, former Australian captain Border said he was “disappointed” and “shell-shocked” at Australia’s batting. “I’m angry about the way they went about it today,” he said. “It was panicky, frenetic sort of batting … nobody got in there to stem the flow with some good defensive cricket. They were all just getting out playing sweep shot, reverse sweep to just about every ball. You can’t get away with that on that sort of track. You’ve got to have a method.”
In response, India lost KL Rahul early for one, and skipper Rohit Sharma gave away his wicket after a terrible mix-up. Todd Murphy once again defeated Virat Kohli, stumping him for 20, while Nathan Lyon dismissed Shreyas Iyer for 12. India finally won the Test match in the third day’s second session, winning by six wickets in the 27th over of the innings.
