IND vs AUS 2017: Eden Gardens ODI was the hottest game anyone said they've played, says Pat Cummins

New Delhi: Rain was the a big threat ahead of the second one-day international between India and Australia at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. But as the game rolled on, sun walked out and all of a sudden, the touring Australian seemed to be struggling under the scorching Kolkata heat. And Aussie pacer Pat Cummins reckoned that it was the toughest challenge that the team had ever faced.

The apparent temperature read as 42 degrees celcius. Moments after the first powerplay, seamers Nathan Coulter-Nile and Pat Cummins walked to the sidelines to revive themselves. Kane Richardson too neede some aid from the physio and later e was spotted wearing a GPS tracker vest. And not just pacers, wicketkeeper Mathew Wade faield to keep up his strength as assistance ran in quite a few times to help him out. Such was the effect of sun on Eden Gardens.

It felt similar to Dhaka, I reckon, just below Chittagong," Cummins told cricket.com.au on Saturday. "But that's the hottest one-day game anyone said they've played. I think the 50 overs felt like it was about 200 overs out there. You only had to look at 'Wadey' (Matthew Wade), it was 15 overs in and he was on all fours. So it's not great conditions."

"You pretty much try and change all your clothes because they're just sodden through with sweat," Cummins said. "If you've got strapping you try and get that re-strapped. You just try and get one or two overs just to cool down and have some ice blocks, change all your gear and try and freshen up."

However, amid the heat, the tourists scripted a remarkable fightback with both Coulter-Nile and Richardson scalping three each to bundle out the formidale Indians to 252 runs. But the team failed to shine with the bat as Australia went down to suffer a 50-run defeat in Kolkata.

"As a player and a teammate it's frustrating when it's out of your control," Cummins said of the batting collapse. "We got in a position in both games where we could've taken the game away from India. It was unfortunate that there was a couple of wickets but we've just got to try and find a way to fix that up. There's still three games left so we can still win the series.

"I thought it was a great effort from the five or six bowlers. There were no big overs so I think to keep them to 250 on a really good batting wicket and batting conditions in the afternoon, I thought it was a great job," he concluded.

As for Cummins, with the much-anticiapted Ashes serise coming up, the pacer returned home to build himself up. Ergo, he would be missing out on the three-match T20I series.