19 December 2020, was the day when India recorded its worst-ever batting performance. After putting hosts under pressure in the first two days of the test, things didn’t go in India’s way on 3rd day. India all out on 36 in their 2nd innings of the match and could play only 21 overs. With this total India records its lowest ever total in Test cricket.
India All Out On 36
No India batsman could score double-digit. Mayank Agarwal’s 9 was the highest for India in this innings. India’s previous lowest was 42 which came in 1974 against England at Lord’s. India survived the lowest ever total in Test history by 10 runs. The unwanted record is still in the name of New Zeland who were all out by England at the score 26 in 1955.
As India all out on 36, they were leading the hosts by 89 runs. At a time leading by 53 runs with 10 wickets in hand, India could only give a 90 runs target to Aussies. And as expected, Australian batsmen didn’t take much time to chase it down. Hosts didn’t give any chance to India to make a comeback. Australia’s top 4 chased down 90 runs in just 21 overs and winning the match by 8 wickets. Thus, the historic day-night test ended in a disastrous manner for India. Here below is the video of India’s fall of wickets in 2nd innings.
Legends Take A Dig At India’s Performance
Cricket legends and experts took a sly dig at the humiliated performance of India. Wasim Akram tweeted, “Wait what happened? I just went to play 9 holes came back game over. What a spell by The Australians. Pace matter.” While Virender Sehwag took a dig at Indian batsmen’s single-digit scores in the innings. Former Indian opener wrote on his Twitter handle, “The OTP to forget this is 49204084041”
Interestingly on this day in 2016, India had recorded its highest ever total in test cricket. A Virat Kohli led team India had posted 759 runs against England at Chennai. Karun Nair had hit a triple century in that match. Now after exactly 4 years, India all out on 36 and recorded their lowest Test total in 89 years of history.