By Andrew Ramsey at Adelaide Oval

IT was a couple of overs into the spell of his cricket life to date that Josh Hazlewood looked up at Adelaide Oval’s heritage-listed scoreboard and noticed history staring back at him.

The tale recounted by carefully framed name-plates surrounded by a sequence of single-digit numbers had never before been seen in a Test match.

India’s first six wickets – albeit with the inclusion of the previous evening’s night watchman Jasprit Bumrah – had come and gone for an aggregate return of 19 runs.

The previous lowest return for their first six wickets of any Test outfit was 25, by South Africa against Australia at the MCG in the summer of 1931-32 when they also posted 36 all out.

It’s the sort of scoreline familiar to regular park cricket watchers.

But when those six names included India’s batting maestro Virat Kohli (4), the hero of the team’s historic Test series win in Australia two summers ago, Cheteshwar Pujara and captain-in-waiting Ajinkya Rahane (both 0), the story framed by the scoreboard was surely fiction.

“I can’t put a finger on when,” Hazlewood said tonight when asked at which point he felt he was involved in a magic bowling effort that ultimately delivered him 5-8 from five hypnotic overs.

“It might have been when I looked up and it was 20-6 or something, and Cummo (fellow quick Pat Cummins) had Pujara and Kohli both out and we just had the tail to come.

“I think around that time you know you’ve got something special going, and I just felt like if we kept bowling in those areas that nicks were going to keep coming.

“We just didn’t let up really.

“It was just one of those days when everything went to plan, we kept putting it in on that spot and the nicks kept coming.

“It happened so quickly, it was over before we knew it.”

It wasn’t just India’s batting effort – an all-time Test low for them of 36 from 21.2 overs – that was done and dusted before anyone could really make sense of what was happening.

Australia’s subsequent pursuit of 90 runs to secure a 1-0 lead in the four-match Vodafone Series loomed as a tricky exercise given the obvious assistance for seam bowlers in the pitch, but that was knocked over in 95 minutes for the loss of two wickets to prematurely end the match.

To complete the surreal nature of the day-night Test’s third day (it didn’t make it into the floodlit session yesterday), Australia opener Joe Burns ended his recent lean spell by scoring more from his own previously stone-cold bat than all 11 of India’s team could manage earlier in the day.

It’s little wonder Hazlewood admitted to being a little dumbfounded by the day’s events, especially when he led the team from the field after 90 minutes’ play today with the pink ball held aloft in triumph and 200 Test wickets to his name.

“We were probably a bit more stunned when we came off from bowling,” he said when asked if he could believe the speed and efficiency with which Australia had dismantled India.

“The mood didn’t change too much throughout the whole game to be fair.

“I know we were behind by 53 after the first innings, but there was a calmness amongst us.

“I can probably speak for the bowling group in saying that we thrive on those situations when we’re a little bit behind and it’s up to us to change the momentum of the game, and that’s what we did today.”

Hazlewood claimed the only similarly surreal feeling he could recall in his previous 51 Tests was the Headingley match of last year’s Ashes campaign when he, Cummins and James Pattinson knocked over England for 67 in just under 28 overs.

But memories of that day were soon soured, after Australia surrendered the match to a stunning last-wicket onslaught from England all-rounder Ben Stokes.

He also couldn’t claim to replicate the feelings of former Australia off-spinner Tim May who produced a similarly mesmeric spell of bowling against the West Indies in 1992-93 (5-9) and famously told teammates midway he felt the ball was coming out so well it was “scary”.

“I don’t think you could say that, but it was certainly coming out nicely,” Hazlewood said of his historic spell that began with the wicket of Mayank Agarwal from the first delivery he sent down.

“Rolled in first ball and happened to get a wicket.

“It gets you in a good frame of mind and pretty confident.

“I seemed to be bowling to a new batter, whether I was getting the wicket or Cummo was, so that’s always nice as well to come up against someone fresh and facing his first delivery.”

The Adelaide Oval scoreboard remained floodlit as the famous ground descended into darkness, and Australia’s suitably socially-distanced victory celebration continued, given extra impetus by knowledge the team had earned a couple of additional days off.

But in years to come, when folks revisit the record books and online resources that list the lowest-ever Test match totals since 1877, questions will surely arise as to what was happening with the Adelaide pitch to produce such a stunning implosion.

According to Hazlewood, who can proffer his team’s breezy fourth innings run-chase as supporting evidence, it was likely more the quality of the bowling than glaring deficiencies in the playing surface.

“I think the wicket was probably a little too flat last year,” he said, recalling the corresponding day-night Test when teammate David Warner plundered an unbeaten 335 against Pakistan.

“It all depends on when you get the new ball to be honest.

“If you’re bowling plenty of overs with the new ball at night things can happen really quickly, or an overcast day if it gets a little bit of swing.

“Things can happen quickly in the pink ball game, and vice versa (for batters).

“It was quite hard work (for bowlers), even the last two or three years during the daytime with a relatively old ball.

“I’ll never say no to more grass (on a pitch) that’s for sure.

“I was happy with this year.

“A few guys scrapped to 60s and 70s and probably the guys who went out there with a bit more intent and played their shots probably got rewarded to a degree.” (Cricket.com.au)