Great India-Australia Tests

Kolkata 2001

Coming into this match – the second of the three Test series – Australia had notched up 16 wins on the trot, the latest being their win in the first Test at Mumbai in three days by ten wickets.

And early on the morning of the third day nothing it seemed would stop them from registering victory No 17, for after amassing 445, they dismissed India for 171.

Following on, India lost four wickets for 232 shortly before stumps were drawn and Rahul Dravid joined VVS Laxman.

The two batted till close of play and then came the amazing transformation in the match with the pair batting through the entire fourth day. This opened up interesting possibilities. The record 376-run partnership was not broken till the morning of the final day with Dravid out for 180.

Laxman went on to get 281, the highest score by an Indian in Tests, and Sourav Ganguly now could afford the luxury of declaring the innings closed at 657 for seven, leaving the Australians a victory target of 384.

Harbhajan Singh, who in the first innings became the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Tests on his way to a seven-wicket haul, struck telling blows to finish with six more as the Aussies succumbed to pressure. The astonishing turnabout was complete with the visitors dismissed for 212, leaving India victors by 171 runs. It was only the third time in Test history that a team had won a match after following on.

In Image: Indian cricketers (L to R) Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman pose for photographers during a cricket fitness camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, 18 June 2004.