"Not a 244 pitch!" - Fans fume on Twitter after Indian team's batting collapse in Sydney
After more than a 100 overs on the crease, the Indian cricket team were skittled out for 244 in their first innings of the Sydney Test, handing Australia a wealthy 94-run lead.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane started the team's vigil on a solid note on Saturday. The riveting competition between the world's highest-ranked Test bowler, Pat Cummins, and two of India's best batsmen was a test of patience between both the sides.
Eventually, a bumper removed Rahane, which left Pujara to take up the onus of scoring the runs along with Hanuma Vihari. Pujara stood sturdy and scored his slowest fifty in Test cricket. However, the fact that this feat was achieved on a flat Sydney track, chronicling the dismal story of India's innings.
Soon enough, Pujara edged one to the keeper off Cummins' bowling, and his departure took with it a lot of the Indian fans' hopes as well. Cummins was relentless in his lines and lengths on the flat surface and was certainly the pick of the bowlers.
The Aussie bowlers, though, were also helped immensely by three of India's batters who seemed in an inscrutable hurry and gifted their wickets with a run-out. Hanuma Vihari's run-out hurt India the most among these as he just took off after nudging a full delivery to mid-off.
Josh Hazelwood arguably surprised Vihari and everyone else with a sharp pickup-and-throw direct hit on the non-striker's end. Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja added some useful runs down the order for India but neither could play the long game. India collapsed from 195-4 to 244 all-out.
The visitors now face an uphill task to stop this in-form Australian line-up. They will need a special effort from the bowlers, perhaps something on the lines of what Australia did to them in Adelaide.
Indian cricket fans were not happy with the side's batting display, and below are some of the best social media reactions -
Twitter reactions to India's poor batting show in Sydney