5 thrilling draws in Test cricket

Australia vs South Africa, Nov 2012

Adelaide Oval

The versatility of AB de Villiers' batsmanship - to switch his game from having any number of shots to every delivery to not playing one at all - was underlined at the Adelaide Test.

Teams chasing totals either on the lower or higher side in the fourth innings but just missing the target have given us some heart-stopping thrillers. These are games that the batting side ought to have won but just fell short of. At the other end of the spectrum are the survival thrillers.

Many a time, a win is a distant possibility and teams have to rather shed their ego and play boring, dour cricket to achieve the more practical drawn result. These scenarios too have given us some thrilling draws.

One classic of this kind was played out at the Adelaide Oval during South Africa’s tour of Australia in 2012. Michael Clarke’s double ton and centuries from David Warner and Michael Hussey led Australia to a mammoth 550, to which South Africa replied with 388.

The Proteas were set a target of 430 in the fourth innings. First innings centurion Graeme Smith was dismissed cheaply for a duck and the Proteas soon slid to 45/4. At the crease were the experience of AB De Villiers and Faf Du Plessis in his debut Test. The duo traded their stroke-making capabilities for Zen-like defence.

Particularly interesting was the approach of de Villiers, a man who has every shot in the book and can play any ball to any part of the ground. His innings spanning 220 deliveries yielded a mere 33 runs and no boundaries.

Du Plessis, on the other hand, consumed 376 deliveries and registered a very crucial century on debut. Even the injured Jacques Kallis, who had left the field early in the game after injuring his hamstring while bowling, fought through the pain and contributed 58 and 46 in both innings, batting long hours at No’s: 9 and 7 respectively.

The Proteas never came anywhere close to the target but they had batted close to a day and a half or 150 overs to salvage a draw.