Kolkata, 2001
Australia 445 (S Waugh 110, Harbhajan 7-123) and 212 (Harbhajan 6-73) lost to India 171 (Laxman 59, McGrath 4-18) and 657/7d f/o (Laxman 281, Dravid 180) by 171 runs
Where were you that evening, when Harbhajan Singh rapped Glenn McGrath on the pads, under lengthening twilight shadows at the packed and heaving Eden Gardens? Where were you when SK Bansal raised his forefinger with a flourish, making McGrath throw his head back in agony, sending a nation into raptures?
Where were you at the end of the greatest cricket match ever played?
The word epic is used very casually these days, but Kolkata 2000 was truly that. Like the Iliad and the Mahabharat, it featured a stellar cast of characters, unfolded through multiple plots and subplots, showcased the rise of underdogs against the odds, and will withstand the test of time as an unforgettable piece of folklore. India had been hammered in the first Test in Mumbai. Coming less than 12 months after a rare home series defeat to South Africa, and the mess of the match-fixing scandal, that Mumbai defeat seemed to signal the end of India’s invincible home record. They were already without Anil Kumble, and in Mumbai they’d also lose Javagal Srinath to injury. Steve Waugh’s Australia — the greatest Test team ever assembled — had won 16 Tests on the bounce. They had breached the fortress walls and were well on their way to winning the "Final Frontier", on the back of the captain’s first-innings century.
Someone forgot to tell Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid, though. Harbhajan was a one-man bowling machine, spinning out 13 of the 20 wickets, including a first-day hat-trick. And yet, he was not the Man of the Match — that’s how seminal Laxman’s 281 was. It was then the highest Test score by an Indian batter, and it remains the greatest Test innings ever played by an Indian. India went from staring at the humiliation of an innings defeat in their follow-on, to Laxman and Dravid batting and bossing Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Jason Gillespie for an entire day. Harbhajan then did the rest on that final afternoon, which no fan of Indian cricket will ever forget. Australia’s record-making 16-match unbeaten streak in Test cricket was ended, and how.
Chennai, 2001
Australia 391 (Hayden 203, Harbhajan 7-133) and 264 (M Waugh 57, Harbhajan 8-84) lost to India 501 (Tendulkar 126) and 155/8 (Laxman 66) by 2 wickets
No Test match since or before has surpassed Kolkata for drama, but the Chennai Test that followed came mighty close. Once again, Australia came out charging on the back of the mighty Matthew Hayden, and once again Harbhajan leashed them. India counter-punched with the bat — Laxman and Dravid in their element again, complementing a masterful century from Sachin Tendulkar at his favourite ground. Armed with a handy lead, Harbhajan tormented Australia again — Gilchrist and Ponting in particular, fumbling to pick the "Turbanator" — and India were left with a simple chase to take the series.
But against Australia, it’s never over until it is over. Laxman was walking on water by now, smacking boundaries to every corner of Chepauk, when Mark Waugh plucked a magical catch to turn the game. On that final afternoon, Australia brought to bear the experience of being the greatest team in the game, and the desperation that came from having that crown challenged. They took eight wickets to push India to the brink, but the Test ended exactly how the previous one had — Harbhajan against McGrath, this time with roles reversed. Harbhajan squirted a wide yorker through the offside and ran two to finish the chase, Chennai exploded, and India won a series that would never be topped for drama… Not for another 19 years, in any case.
Adelaide, 2003
Australia 556 (Ponting 242, Kumble 5-154) and 196 (Agarkar 6-41) lost to India 523 (Dravid 233, Laxman 148) and 233 for 6 (Dravid 72*) by 4 wickets
India had pulled off a surprisingly dominant draw in the first Test, aided by an unusually flat Gabba pitch. But once again, they lost talismanic bowlers in the opening Test — this time Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan picked up series-ending injuries. Australia won an important toss in Adelaide, and teed off in a hurry, running up 400 runs on the opening day. Ricky Ponting, by now a modern-day legend, ran up a double-hundred as Australia made 556.
India slumped to 85 for 4, before history repeated itself. Laxman and Dravid, once again, came together to torment Australia, and seemed set to bat an entire day one more time. Laxman made 148, but this was Dravid’s Test. His 233 took India to within striking distance of Australia’s score with plenty of time still left in the match.
On a flat pitch, facing an Indian attack that would not give in, Australia perished by the sword. Agarkar picked up six wickets to leave India chasing 230 for an unlikely win. It was the sort of target that would taunt, tease and tantalise before the inevitable Indian collapse. Not on Dravid’s watch though — he followed up his 233 with an unbeaten 72 to win the game and celebrate with emotion, bat aloft and kissing the crest of his India cap. The vanquished Australians were not sore losers — Steve Waugh, in his final series, would pick up the ball that Dravid had hit for the winning boundary and give it to the batsman as a souvenir to mark his greatest moment.
Perth, 2008
India 330 (Dravid 93, Johnson 4-86) and 294 (Laxman 79, Clark 4-61) beat Australia 212 (Symonds 66, RP Singh 4-68) and 340 (Clarke 81) by 72 runs
This Test got underway in an atmosphere of chaos and ill-will. Australia had won a tense Test at Sydney to yet again equal their 16-game unbeaten record. They had benefited from several umpiring errors, and on the final day also claimed a few dodgy catches, seemingly taking advantage of a pre-series pact between the sides to trust the fielder’s word. If India were miffed with the lack of sportsmanship, Australia had their own reasons to be aggrieved. Harbhajan — by now a perennial thorn in Australia’s side — was accused of using racist slurs against Andrew Symonds; accusations that India dodged clumsily, with Tendulkar standing up for his team-mate.
Today, the BCCI’s boorishness at cricket’s top table may seem de rigueur, but back then they were only beginning to flex that muscle. With tensions escalating on both sides, the BCCI threatened to pull out of the tour and there were exaggerated reports of a plane on standby at a nearby airstrip to fly the players back home.
It’s uncanny how history tends to repeat itself. In 2001, Laxman, Dravid and Harbhajan played central roles in India turning the tables on Australia, ending their 16-match winning streak. In 2008, it was exactly the same at Perth — an out-of-form Dravid top-scored in the first innings, and a typically fluent Laxman did likewise in the second, as India managed to outwit Australia. The abiding memory of the game remains Ishant Sharma’s iconic spell to remove Ricky Ponting after working him over through seven hostile overs of pace, bounce and swing.
Mohali, 2010
Australia 428 (Watson 126, Zaheer 5-94) and 192 (Watson 56) lost to India 405 (Tendulkar 98, Raina 86, Johnson 5-64) and 216/9 (Laxman 73*, Hilfenhaus 4-57) by 1 wicket
We are so spoiled for Ind vs Aus classics in recent years, that some fans won’t even remember the Mohali humdinger of 2010.
The teams had matched each other in the first dig to set up a two-day second innings shoot-out on a tricky pitch. Shane Watson went after the new ball, before India pulled the game back through spin and Zaheer’s masterful reverse-swing. Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger then crippled India’s chase of 216, and at 124 for 8, India were staring at certain defeat.
A lot had changed from the early 2000s. For starters, Australia weren’t invincible anymore — but some things stayed the same — they still could not find a way past Laxman. Here, despite a back injury that meant he was batting with a runner, Laxman sparked an unlikely final twist to the match, first farming the strike from Ishant, and then hammering a series of boundaries through the leg side. Australia rightly tried to get their wicket at the other end, but Ishant held on gamely as India got close. India were down to their last wicket with 11 runs still needed, and despite chaotic running from Pragyan Ojha, Laxman held his nerve to close out a sensational win. That was the summer of Laxman — in the same year, he also masterminded improbable Test victories in Colombo and Durban.
Laxman would miss the next Test in Bangalore, paving the way for Cheteshwar Pujara’s debut. Which is fitting, for Pujara has since emerged as a worthy successor to Laxman’s title of Australia’s tormentor-in-chief.
Bangalore, 2017
India 189 (Rahul 90, Lyon 8-50) and 274 (Pujara 92, Hazlewood 6-67) beat Australia 276 (Marsh 66, Jadeja 6-63) and 112 (Ashwin 6-41) by 75 runs
The first half of the 2010s featured a set of unusually one-sided series between the two teams, with both countries dominating in home conditions. In 2017 though, Australia came mighty close to winning a series in India, after bossing the opening Test on a turner in Pune. India were on the floor at the end of the first day in Bangalore, before Virat Kohli’s bowlers fought back. On a sporting track at the Chinnaswamy, Ishant led a spirited bowling effort to check Australia’s lead — his mocking of Steve Smith during that spell is, perhaps, the most famous cricket meme ever made.
KL Rahul had a great game at his home ground, following up 90 in the first innings with another 50. But India had barely wiped out the first-innings deficit before losing Rahul, Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in quick succession. Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane then combined in an attritional partnership, giving India’s spinners something to defend in the last dig. On a wearing pitch, India rode on the back of Umesh Yadav’s reverse swing, and R Ashwin’s dominance of left handers to complete a hard-fought win that helped them draw level. They would go on to win the decider in Dharamsala to complete a 2-1 series win.
Brisbane, 2021
Australia 369 (Labuschagne 108) and 294 (Smith 55, Siraj 5-73) lost to India 336 (Thakur 67, Hazlewood 5-57) and 329/7 (Gill 91, Pant 89*) by 3 wickets
We did not expect to see the drama of 2001 topped in our lifetimes, but 20 years later, it happened again.
Some background: While Smith and David Warner were away serving their sandpaper-gate bans, India pulled off a 2-1 win in Australia in 2018. It was a remarkable result yet, post facto, the absence of Warner and Smith robbed some of the sheen from India’s achievement. The claims were hollow; after all, Pujara ran up over 600 runs against a full-strength attack.
In 2020, the shoe was on the other boot. India were blown away in the Adelaide opener, following which they also lost their captain and talisman Kohli on paternity leave. Mohammad Shami dropped out with a fractured arm. Somehow, Rahane inspired India to a victory in the second Test in Melbourne. But the body count kept piling up — Umesh Yadav was out for the third Test, and by the time India put their bodies on the line to save that match in Sydney, they would also lose Jasprit Bumrah, Ashwin, Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari. This series was being played during the pandemic, so India could not even fly in reinforcements, and had to make do with the net bowlers they had taken on the tour. If you were in Australia and had played some form of representative cricket, chances are you would have been selected for the Brisbane Test.
Eventually, the bowling attack read thus: Mohammad Siraj, Nitin Saini, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar and T Natrajan — this was at best India’s third-choice bowling unit. And Australia had not lost a Test at the Gabba since 1988. The result was a foregone conclusion.
You could explain India’s miracle win in 2001 though it came against the odds. But you will never be able to explain what unfolded over those five days in Brisbane. At times it felt like a higher power was at play, guiding a bunch of spirited, happy-go-lucky journeymen into producing pieces of magic way beyond their wildest dreams. It was evident in the way Siraj - leading the attack in only his third Test and first tour for India — bowled his guts out. It was evident in Thakur’s measured outswing that had Australia fumbling — outswing perfected over years of toil on the maidans of Mumbai; outswing that was never meant for Brisbane. It was evident in the dark red patches of pain all over Pujara’s midriff, as India’s rock stood tall and took one body blow after another to soften the Australian attack. It was evident in Shubman Gill’s cracking square-cut six off Mitchell Starc on that final morning, as India mounted a chase of 328 because — like Mt Everest confronting George Mallory — it was there. It was evident later that evening when Sundar rocked back, Brian Lara-like, and lumped Pat Cummins for a no-look six over the midwicket boundary.
It was evident in every single shot of glory that the cherubic, smiling Rishabh Pant played that day, to take his team to a scarcely-believable victory.
Onwards then, to the next edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Who is going to be making the magic happen in 2023?
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