‘What we’ve seen here is a disaster for Australia': Aussie legends shocked and angry after India thrashing in the 2nd Test

The second consecutive loss in the Border Gavaskar Trophy left the Australian legends in awe. The batting collapse of the Pat Cummins-led side was a complete shock to them and resulted in an anger-frustrated situation as they comment on their side. 

The Nagpur Test was a complete disappointment for Australia and all they would have thought of was to level the series 1-1 in the 2nd Test Match at Delhi. But it looks like the Men in Blue had some other plans. The third Day of the 2nd Test at the Arun Jaitley Stadium was catastrophic. After India got bowled out in their 1st innings at the end half of the second day, the Australian side was guided by Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne. They took the total to 61 runs after Usman Khawaja was caught by Shreyas Iyer in a fine spell by Ravindra Jadeja. He scored only 6 runs. The Aussies were in try of posting a strong target after getting a good lead on Day-2. But who knew what was coming in the way of the mighty Aussies! The magical spells of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin caused a humiliating collapse for the away team. The spin duo picked 9 wickets in just 90 minutes on the afternoon of the third day. India later wrapped up the match with six wickets in hand and Pujara playing his 101 Test match finished off the game with a four. The Men in Blue yet again imposed a forceful win in just 3 days. Loss is acceptable but not in this humiliating way, as these two results left the Australian Legendsn in complete shock and anger as they threw negative remarks at the Pat Cummins-led side. 

Ashwin who was phenomenal in the first Test and also picked 3 wickets in the first innings of the 2nd Test was the man targeted at end of the third day. Nevertheless, the Indian spinners were right back on track for the 3rd day as the Aussie lineup fell like a pack of cards. Australia were 113 all out, losing 9 wickets on the third day with no double-digit scorers and three ducks.  

Being flabbergasted by what’s happening in front of his eyes, Mathew Hayden said during the commentary, “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.”

“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.”

While retaliating, India lost KL Rahul for just one run while the skipper lost his wicket after a terrible mix-up. Todd Murphy also got the better of Virat Kohli as he was stumped for 20 runs and this was the first time when the Indian batter got out because of a stumping. Shreyas Iyer was dismissed by the Aussie spinner Nathan Lyon for just 12 runs. In spite of all these, India managed to close the Test match in the second session of the third day.

As cited in Fox Cricket, former Australian skipper Allan Border said he was “disappointed” and “shell-shocked” at Australia's batting. “I’m angry about the way they went about it today,” he stated. "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.”

India and Australia will now head into the third Test in Indore and the home side has an unassailable lead of 2-1 in the series. The match is scheduled to begin from March 1 onwards.