5 thrilling draws in Test cricket

South Africa vs India, Dec 2013

The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

The duo of De Villiers and Du Plessis scored tons that not only denied India a famous overseas Test win but gave themselves a chance of winning a record chase.

On a trademark Wanderers track, Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s decision to bat first on pacy and bouncy conditions in the first Test of the series could have backfired big time if a young Virat Kohli on his first tour of South Africa had not steered the team to safety with a century.

Kohli's 119-run knock took India to a decent first innings total of 280. In return, the Indian pace trio of Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami ran through the opposition and the Proteas folded up at 244, giving the visitors a slender lead.

Quite unlike the India-Windies game at Wankhede, the second half of this Test turned out to be a run feast. This time, Cheteshwar Pujara notched up a classy 153 and Kohli fell short of another ton by just four runs. India were eventually bowled out for 421.

Faced with the daunting task of chasing down a target of 458 to win in a maximum remaining 136 overs, the hosts seemed to have started steadily as Alviro Petersen and Graeme Smith put on an opening partnership of 108 but a quick fall of wickets thereafter slid them down to 197/4.

Defeat seemed inevitable when the Proteas needed to survive close to a day with almost half their side down.

However, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis added 205 for the fifth wicket and consumed most of the remaining overs, ensuring either a well-earned draw or a miraculous chase.

South Africa needed just 16 to get in just more than 3 overs when du Plessis departed. Strangely, they seemed to play for a draw as Steyn and Philander played out two maidens and left the score at a mere eight runs adrift of the target.