Published: Aug 09, 2015, 03:08 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 09, 2015, 03:25 PM (IST)
This footage is from the first Test between Australia and India, in Sydney. The match was won by an innings by the home team, as India capitulate for low scores in both innings. The series was an eventful one, however, as India escaped with a draw in the second Test and won the third Test in Melbourne, their third win in Australia. They thereby drew the series 1-1. Sandeep Patil played a couple of attacking knocks, and his 174, in the second Test in Adelaide, got the team a much-needed boost going in to Melbourne. Australia were bowled out in the second innings of that match for 83 to hand India the game by 59 runs.
Patil’s knock helped India draw the match otherwise dominated by the home team, in Adelaide. The awe-inspiring nature of that knock is better understood with the circumstances of it:
“In the first Test, he had been struck on the head by a Len Pascoe blinder after a fascinating 65. That had been the second body blow after Rodney Hogg had struck him on the throat.
Sandeep Patil was rushed to the hospital and kept under observation in the intensive care unit, and the doctors did not allow him to sleep for ten hours. The next morning, he was discharged and came back to the ground with a throbbing pain in the ear, caused by a perforation from the blow. As India succumbed to a huge defeat, he was sent in to bat at number eight in the second innings. It is strange that captain Sunil Gavaskar asked him to bat at all. The match was already lost and Patil was still in considerable pain, blood oozing from his ears.” This, from an article on our website.
