In the history of Indian cricket, no one can forget the Test match played against Australia in 2001 at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata. In this match, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid played brilliant innings and scripted the victory of Team India.
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New Delhi: Not only India but in the history of Test cricket, the match played between India and Australia at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata in the year 2001 will always be remembered. In this match, India snatched victory from Australia’s face. Australia had given follow-on to Team India and what happened after that became history. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid had made such a partnership which became the reason for Australia’s defeat. On this day i.e. March 14, this partnership had brought Australia to its knees.
This match started on 11 March. Australia scored a huge score in the first innings. He scored 445 runs on the basis of innings of 110 runs by captain Steve Waugh, 97 runs by Matthew Hayden and 58 runs by Justin Langer. At the same time, Team India could score only 171 runs in the first innings. Australia gave him the follow on.
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Laxman-Dravid set sail
On the third day, Team India came out to play the follow-on but its innings again faltered. He lost his three wickets on a total score of 115. Sadagopan Ramesh, Shiv Sundar Das and Sachin Tendulkar had returned to the pavilion. Sourav Ganguly played an inning of 48 runs and along with Laxman took the team’s score to 232. By the end of the third day, India had scored 254 runs losing four wickets. But the real work happened on the fourth day i.e. 14th March.
Laxman scored 109 runs and Dravid took the innings forward by seven runs. From here again Australia went out of the match. Both of them added 335 runs without losing a wicket on the fourth day. By the end of the day, India’s score was 589 runs at the loss of four wickets. Laxman returned unbeaten after scoring 275 runs and Rahul scored 155 runs. At one time, Team India, which was looking backward and was going towards defeat by innings, now had a lead of 144 runs.
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Laxman missed 300
The way Laxman was batting in this match, it seemed that he would become the first batsman to score a triple century for India in Tests, but his innings ended on the fifth day at a score of 281. Nevertheless, at that time he became the highest run-scorer for India in an innings of Test for India. Later Virender Sehwag broke Laxman’s record against Pakistan and scored the first triple century for India. In this match, Laxman faced 452 balls and played this innings with the help of 44 fours. Dravid faced 353 balls and scored 180 runs with the help of 20 fours.
India had declared their innings at 657 for the loss of seven wickets on the last day and had given Australia a target of 384 runs. The Australian team was bundled out for 212 runs and India won the match by 171 runs. In this match, Harbhajan Singh took a hat-trick in Australia’s first innings. The way the Australian team forced India to follow-on, it seemed that this team would easily win the match, but the Laxman-Rahul partnership shocked them.
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