How Allan Border and Maninder Singh became the pillars of the second ever tied Test

Madras Magic!

When I was a child, one of the objectives of my life was to toss a coin and make sure it landed vertically instead of the usual horizontal resting position. It never happened, of course. To be honest though, the chances of that happening are rather slim – unless, of course, the coin lands on the tight division that we see between tiles on a floor.

A similar scenario is looking for a tie in Tests – the chances are so small that only twice has it ever happened in the history of cricket. And today, 29 years ago, was the last time it happened.

The Australians were never supposed to fall into that kind of predicament in the first place. After they posted a mammoth first innings score of 574 for 7, India barely managed to cross the follow-on mark and fell for 397. The Australians then, in an act that perhaps oozed overconfidence, declared after putting 170 runs on the board in their second innings, leaving India to chase a target of 348 on the last day.

It was a bold decision from then captain Allan Border, a decision that could be labeled as the first pillar towards a historic result.

Sunil Gavaskar, who was playing in his 100th consecutive Test, started out the innings well. At lunch, India were 94 for 1 with only the wicket of Kris Srikkanth being lost. The Australians could sense the eerie and odd feeling of negativity as Gavaskar was timing the ball to perfection. Did Border declare too early? Perhaps. Only time could tell.

Come tea, the question was partially answered. One could sense the feeling general feeling among the Aussies that Border did indeed declare a little too early and now risked losing a Test he should never be losing.

Gavaskar and Maninder Amarnath engineered the team to 158 before the latter fell prey to some cunning off-spin. At tea, the scoreboard read India 193/2 – another 155 runs were needed in the last session that permitted 30 overs. Indians could now smell a historic victory, the Australians an embarrassment.

As the curtains were raised and the final session of the Test began, almost everyone could anticipate a glorious end to a fantastic as well as shamefully controversial Test that had both the sides pointing fingers at each other for dubious behavior.

India’s march towards the target took a hit when Gavaskar lost his wicket at 201. His innings of 90 runs was as priceless as it could get. Some sensible batting from Mohammed Azharuddin, Chandrakant Pandit, and Ravi Shastri took India to 331 for 6, needing just 17 runs with 4 wickets in hand.

And then came the collapse.

Chetan Sharma, Kiran More and Shivlal Yadav fell in quick succession to leave Indian reeling at 344 for 9. With just a wicket in hand and an over remaining in the Test, India needed 4 runs to seal the win. Tensions were running high and if Shastri was in the commentary box instead of the field, he would have said, “make no mistake about it, this is a pressure cooker situation.”

Then Shastri managed to score 3 runs and give the strike to Maninder Singh, who wasn’t much of a batter – in fact, his bat-holding technique itself could tell you of his skills with the bat, or lack thereof.

“The game is evenly poised now.”

Singh managed to hold off the first ball for no run. 1 run needed off 2 balls.

“This match is going to go down the wire.”

And then, blimey! Singh was caught in front of the stump and was adjudged LBW to put the curtains down to an exhilarating Test.

“In the end, cricket was the winner.”

The end result left an mixture of good and bad tastes in the mouths of both parties. If one asked Indian fans whether they would take a draw after the second day of the Test, they would happily shout yes.

Similar sentiments would have been echoed by the Kangaroos when India were batting at 331/6 on the final day. Both teams had spectacular chances to win the game but threw them away, and both could have fallen into the hands of demeaning defeat, yet got saved.

David Boon, Border, Dean Jones and Kapil Dev all smacked a century each, with Jones' 210 being the best of the lot. Greg Matthews finished the Tests with 10 wickets and was the pick of the bowlers on a batsman-friendly track.

When you look back at this Test you can't help but feel that it was Border’s audacity and Singh’s inability that became the stronghold on which this glorious result stood. Shastri could also be pointed at for giving away the strike and trusting a bowler to carry India all the way with the bat.

The Test was one of the finest games played in the sport, but it wasn’t without its fair share of controversy. Border and several other Australian players were seen arguing with the umpires, tampering the name of the game of gentlemen. Singh, too, was seen running 40 yards just to insult Jones after getting his wicket in the second innings.

Concluding this piece and the series of Shastri quotes with this final one, in the end “the crowd have got their money’s worth.”