When Laxman and Dravid turned Eden Test on its head
ON THIS DAY, 16 YEARS AGO, VVS AND DRAVID SCRIPTED A PARTNERSHIP THAT CHANGED INDIAN CRICKET FOR EVER
Indian cricket was going through a turbulent time at the start of the 21st century. The match-fixing scandal had shaken the faith of the fans while India were struggling to win both at home and away.
Amidst all these problems, in 2001, Australia under the captaincy of Steve Waugh arrived in India on the back of 15 consecutive Test victories. In the first Test in Mumbai, Australia secured a thumping 10-wicket win to make it 16 consecutive wins.
Heading into the second Test at the Eden Gardens, India were staring at a crisis. Waugh’s first hundred in India helped the team to 445 all out. India were bowled out for 171, with VVS Laxman, who was not supposed to play the match due to a back injury, making 59 as India trailed by 274 runs.
In the second innings, they had reached 232/4 before Laxman, along with Rahul Dravid, stitched together a partnership that would change the course of not only the match, but also Indian cricket.
By stumps on Day 3, India had reached 254/4 with Laxman on 109 and Dravid on 7. However, things were about to change dramatically on Day 4. Both Laxman and Dravid notched up one of the best partnerships as India turned the tables on Australia. By the end of the day, the duo had smashed 335 without being separated. Laxman went past Sunil Gavaskar’s record of being the highest individual scorer for India in Tests, while Dravid notched up his first ton against Australia. India had ended Day 4 on 589/4 and the pressure was on Australia. On Day 5, Laxman’s quest to become India’s first triple centurion was jolted as he fell for 281. This was then the highest individual score by an Indian batsman in Tests and it was also the third-highest by any batsman against Australia.
The 376-run partnership for the fifth wicket was the third-best in Test history for that wicket. Dravid departed for 180 and India declared at 657/7. Set a target of 384, Harbhajan picked up 6/73 as Australia collapsed to 212 all out to give India victory by 171 runs.
The Kolkata victory ended Australia’s 16-match winning streak while this Test was only the third instance in history when a team had won a match after following on.