(Reuters) – Australian forward Pat Cummins was pleasantly surprised by their fiery, flawless display of speed bowling that propelled India to a record low in yesterday’s opening night test.
Cummins’ double strikes on the third day are Virat Kohli’s unbeaten India who eventually shot out for 36, their lowest innings score in 88 years of test cricket.
“We thought if we could get them out for 200 today, get some bats, we would stay in the game,” Cummins told Channel 7 after claiming 4-21 to go with his first three wickets for an innings.
“But for that to happen in the first hour, amazing.” “It was just one of those days when everything fell apart, everything we tried worked,” said the test bowler at the top.
Cummins felt they bowled well in the first inning as well but were highly rewarded for changing their length on Saturday.
“We found in the first pubs that there was really a lot of bouncing, so to hit the stumps it almost felt like it had to be a half volley.
“But when we got to work we were able to get there a little fuller, make the batters make decisions, make it harder to leave the ball and luckily it all went away today.”
The 27-year-old compared his team’s bowling performance with last year’s Headingley test when they skipped England for 67 in the first inning.
“Last year in the first innings of Headingley, we had a similar day out. Now and then it is best for me to see us bowl by far. ”
Josh Hazlewood was Australia’s leading wrecker against India at the Adelaide Oval, claiming 5-8, while Mitchell Starc could not add to his first four wickets for an innings.
“At one point he told Starcy, ‘I’m going to try to keep my wickets above my runs here’, so he was rude to the end,” Cummins said of Hazlewood.