Video: India vs Australia at Kolkata 2001

Dravid and Laxman’s partnership helped India to secure emphatic victory

The second Test of India and Australia was finally shifted to Eden Gardens at Kolkata. The pitch at Kolkata seemed to extract extra-bit of bounce for the pacers and it had always favoured the side batting first. India had made three changes in their bowling department as Agarkar, Srinath and Sangvi made way for Zaheer, Venkatesh Prasad and Ventakataphty Raju. No change to the batting line-up. On the other hand, Australia had made a change as Kasprowicz came in for Damien Fleming, However, still no place for spinner Miller. Steve Waugh won the toss again and had no hesitation in batting first, given that track had favoured the side batting first.

Australia posted an imposing 445 runs on the board. The main contributions for India came from Harbhajan Singh as he had been the first bowler to take a hat-trick in a Test match, while other bowlers too chipped in with wickets as Zaheer Khan picked two wickets and Ganguly had one to his tally. A big total to chase then as India’s first task was to avoid follow-on. However, India made a mess of it as their top-order batsmen fumbled leading to a disastrous collapse in the first innings. The only batsmen who stayed till the end was VVS Laxman, which eventually helped India to a score of 171.

Nevertheless, in the 2nd innings India were trailing by 274 runs. The drama started once Laxman came to the crease at 63-1. He and Dravid put together a superb partnership to squeeze India as both Dravid and Laxman scored brilliant 150′s. While Laxman scored 281, Dravid was dismissed for 180. India finally ended their second-innings on 657 runs which meant that Australia had to chase 384 for victory.

So, let’s watch the highlights of the match here to see whether Australia managed to claim the victory.