The Adelaide Oval, A City Of Runs, Wins And Ruins For India!

After scoring a forceful win against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Perth, India return to the lovely city of Adelaide. Old timers quickly jog their memory to recall the country’s first popular hero in the cathedral city, Sandeep `Sandy Storm’ Patil although Capt Vijay Samuel Hazare extracted a century in each innings (116 and 145) against “Bradman’s invincibles’’ in January 1948 – when India toured Australia for the first time. Patil’s swashbuckling 174 (off 240 balls with 22 x 4s and 1 x 6) in the first innings of the Adelaide Test in 1981, after being felled by fast bowler Len Pascoe in the first Test in Sydney earned the Mumbai marauder the moniker `Adelaide Hero’. India’s 11 batters have scored 14 centuries at the famous ground in South Australia and this includes three by Virat Kohli with red ball. But India lost the two Test matches and the champion craftsman made 74 and 4, when India was shot out for 36 in 21.2 overs in the second innings of the pink ball Test four years ago. After Hazare, the likes of Dattu Phadkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Patil, Mohammed Azharuddin and the “fab 3’’ in Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Venkatsai Laxman, the flamboyant Virendra Sehwag, the steadfast Cheteshwar Pujara and the great accumulator Kohli became part of the “Adelaide 100 Club’’ but for many, Patil’s 174 hammering of the likes of Dennis Lillee, Len Pascoe, Rodney Hogg – the second highest by an Indian after Dravid’s 233 in 2003 – has been one for posterity. The beautiful Oval is also the venue where Ajit Agarkar took 6 for 41 and won India the Test there two decades ago.