5 memorable Test matches involving India

#1 Australia tour of India, 2nd Test: India v Australia at Kolkata, Mar 11-15, 2001

Laxman and Dravid produced an incredible comeback against the Australians

The phrase “snatch victory from the jaws of defeat” was epitomised in this particular test match, as India produced one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the sport. It was only the third time since the inception of cricket that a team had won the match after being forced to follow-on in the 2^nd innings.

Led by the heroics of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid in the batting department, and Harbhajan Singh in the bowling department, the Indian team produced one of the most cherished memories for any cricket fan by defeating Australia.

Australia were on a streak of an unbeaten 16 test match run, and they had comprehensively defeated India in the first match of the test series as well. They were well on their way to winning the 2^nd Test too after they had forced a follow-on for India, but what happened in the 2^nd innings was nothing short of a miracle.

After opting to bat first, Australia started off well with 3 out of the 4 top order batsman performing well. It was all going according to plan until Harbhajan Singh produced a stunning bowling performance by picking up a hat-trick in the first innings which led to a middle-order collapse for the Australians.

They were struggling at 269-8 at one point, but led by a calm century by captain Steve Waugh and a heroic 46 by Jason Gillespie, they reached a highly respectable total of 445.

The Australian bowlers proved to be too good for the Indian batting line-up, as they were bundled out for 171 in their first innings. VVS Laxman was the only batsman who performed decently well as he scored 59.

Trailing by 274 runs, Australia enforced a follow-on and were confident of producing a similar bowling performance to take a 2-0 lead in the test series. India started off quite well but were not able to build a significant partnership for a while. The score was 232-4, and out at the crease were VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. What happened from there was one for this history books. VVS Laxman went on to score a “very very special” 281, and along with Rahul Dravid’s stupendous 180, they put on a historic 376 run partnership for the 6th wicket.

India set Australia a target of 384 runs to achieve on the last day of play. Once again, it was a fabulous bowling performance by Harbhajan Singh, along with a 3 wicket haul by Sachin Tendulkar which led to the demise of the Australian batting line-up. and a historic Test win for India.

Result : Australia 445 (Steve Waugh 110*, H. Singh: 7-123) and 212(Hayden 67, H. Singh: 6-73) lost to India 171(VVS Laxman 59, G. Mcgrath: 4-18), 657/7dec(VVS Laxman 281, G McGrath: 3-103)