"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

Aatmanirbhar doesn't mean you pick your own wicket, India. #AUSvIND

— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) January 9, 2021

Run-outs are a gift to the opposition.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) January 9, 2021

Three run-outs....is the how you define ‘ग़रीबी में आटा गीला’। #AusvInd

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) January 9, 2021

The problem with Pujara is he toils hard for 30 overs to get his 50 but what it does is it exposes the lower order and tail to second new ball #INDvsAUS #AUSvIND

— Shiva (@shivabelieves) January 9, 2021

Indian bowlers bends their back and does the hardwork and the batting line-up gives it away, that too on a better pitch where the pressure was self inflicted along with three run-outs. Batting needs to be more aggressive. #AUSvIND match gifted to AUS🤧

— Tushar Ranjan Nath (@tushar_ranjan7) January 9, 2021

Throwing wickets on a day when wickets are good for batting, 3 Run outs shows the goof up India has made in this match.#INDvsAUSTest #AUSvIND

— Bewaak Baatein 🇮🇳 (@bewaakbaatein) January 9, 2021

Ashwin need to start along with bumrah #AUSvIND

— Cricket With Sanket (@awesomesanket) January 9, 2021

Australia played similar # of overs in their innings and managed to score 100 more runs! That's the intent needed on this pitch. Partnership of 11 of 77 balls last night between Rahane and Pujara killed the game for India after a decent start. #AUSvIND #SydneyTest

— Sathyanarayanan Sridhar (@TheDewFactor) January 9, 2021

Justin Langer a big fan of the run out 😂 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/HBX1kRdWrg

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 9, 2021

Not a 244 pitch! #AUSvIND

— Ankit Jit Singh (@JitAnkit) January 9, 2021

@imjadeja should bat higher than Hanuma Vihari, I mean come on. Match gifted to AUS#AUSvIND

— Tushar Ranjan Nath (@tushar_ranjan7) January 9, 2021

Australia, in their first inning had all top 5 batsmen whose strike rate was 45 and above.On the other hand, India had only Shubman Gill from their top 5 with strike rate above 45. Others were not even 35. DIFFERENCE!!#AUSvIND

— T#€ 🅱💙🆖 Gu¥ (@SarkarSpeaking) January 9, 2021

How's that flat track going? #AUSvIND

— Matthew Passmore (@MatthewPassmor8) January 9, 2021

I don't think it was the right approach, I think he needed to be a bit more proactive with his scoring rate because I felt it was putting too much pressure on his batting partners https://t.co/2OhmdATvke

— Ricky Ponting AO (@RickyPonting) January 9, 2021

#AUSvsIND #INDvsAUS #AUSvIND #INDvAUS.India’s chances of winning this test pic.twitter.com/YM9FcnQbta

— BITTER ENGLAND CRICKETER (@BitterEngland) January 9, 2021

Ind:First test: 196/4 to 244 AOThis test: 195/4 to 244 AOKohli be like: #INDvAUS#AUSvIND #AUSvINDtest pic.twitter.com/ZUZGqFPKxn

— अर्पित जैन (@ArpitJ_) January 9, 2021