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A great fall: 46 all out
India suffered a historic collapse, bowled out for 46 against New Zealand, their lowest Test total at home, raising concerns for the team's future.
Some days stay with you -- for the worst reasons. Thursday, October 17, was one of them.
India, so supremely dominant in familiar conditions, crashed to 46 all out — their lowest ever Test total in the country — in what will statistically go down as the most miserable day in Indian cricket history.
As the innings played out on a grey morning in Bengaluru, the mind wandered -- first to Adelaide, where India were bowled out for their record lowest total of 36 in December 2020; then to England, where in 1974, India was bowled out for 42 (their second lowest ever total); for those of a certain vintage, West Indies pacer Patrick Patterson’s 5/24 that bowled India out for 75 in Delhi in 1987 came into the picture; and closer still was South African pacer Dale Steyn’s brutal 5/23 in 2008 that saw the hosts crumble to 76 all out.
But this was worse. It was at home and against a New Zealand team that was just trounced by Sri Lanka.
And Indian cricket will hope it is not a sign of things to come, but merely an aberration — a freak event when everything that could go wrong, did; and anything that could go right, didn’t.
“You see and you try and make the judgement. Sometimes you make the right call, sometimes you don’t, and I was on the other side of it this time around,” Rohit said after India’s dismal collapsed as a cloud cover and some seam movement transported the team to a strange land where poor shot selection was the reigning deity.
“So what if we put ourselves under pressure a little bit? We want to play well. We want to challenge ourselves. This time around, it didn’t come off. To the challenges that were thrown at us, we didn’t respond well; and we found ourselves in a situation where we got bowled out for 46 runs. As a captain, it definitely hurts to see that number, but in 365 days you’ll make two or three bad calls. That’s okay,” Rohit added, trying to justify his decision to bat first even as some of the decisions made by the batters at the crease, including himself, were indefensible.
Just a few days ago, India’s new coach Gautam Gambhir said he wanted this team to be able to adapt. Now, we’ll have to see whether they can, with New Zealand already 134 ahead in the first innings with seven wickets in hand.
The day began on a dour note with the India skipper the first to go -- the ball jagging back in as the right-hander went down the wicket to play an expansive drive far too early in his innings. Virat Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan quickly followed him to the dressing room with ducks to their name.
Then, for a while, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant seemed to stem the tide. They took the score from 10/3 to 31/4 before Jaiswal, one of the only batters to truly dig in, was well caught at point by Ajaz Patel.
That wicket set the cat among the pigeons once again, and India crumbled to 46 all out -- the last seven wickets lost for 15 runs.
Just as the Indian innings ended, the sun started shining on the overcast Chinnaswamy stadium, and New Zealand’s batting showed what the hosts might have enjoyed if they had just been prepared to stick it out during the tough conditions early on.
At close, the Kiwis, thanks to a brilliant 91 by Devon Conway, had made their way to 180 for 3.
But there yet be some hope in history.
Twenty-five years ago, New Zealand’s seamers dismissed India for 83 on a spicy Mohali track. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid struck second-innings centuries as India amassed 505-3to salvage a draw then, and perhaps that memory will give Rohit and his team some heart.
