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The Second Test in the Australian cricket team's tour of India in early 2001 was a Test match played over five days at Eden Gardens in Kolkata from 11–15 March 2001. India won the match by 171 runs after being forced to follow-on, only the third time this has happened since Test cricket began in 1877.
The Australian team, rated as the best in the world, had won 16 Tests in a row, a Test cricket record including the previous Test at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai by 10 wickets.
The match is remembered for VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid's batting performance, Harbhajan Singh's hattrick and last day wicket-taking, Sachin Tendulkar's wicket-taking spell on the final day and Saurav Ganguly's aggressive brand of captaincy who decided to go for the improbable victory and not just a draw. Also of note were Australia's first innings performances, particularly that of captain Steve Waugh and Matthew Hayden. The Test is most noted for its fourth day. After India trailed by more than 250 runs in the first innings, Dravid and Laxman batted the entirety of day four to build up a lead of 384. In the process, Laxman also posted what was, at that time, the highest individual score by an Indian (later to be surpassed by Virender Sehwag's two triple centuries). It is widely considered to be one of the greatest Test matches in cricket history.
Summary
Day 1
Steve Waugh won the toss and decided to bat first. Michael Slater and Matthew Hayden gave the visitors a strong foundation putting on 103 for the opening wicket. Slater was dismissed by Zaheer Khan but Hayden, given a life on 67 when he sliced a drive to Rahul Dravid off Zaheer continued to score freely. He added another 90 runs with Justin Langer to take Australia to 193/1 by tea, and another Australian romp seemed imminent. Harbhajan Singh then dismissed Hayden for 93 immediately after tea, sparking a dramatic collapse from 193/1 to 252/7 and subsequently 269/8. Khan had Langer caught behind, and Harbhajan dismissed the dangerous Mark Waugh to make it 236/4; he then proceeded to take the first ever hat-trick by an Indian bowler as he dismissed Ponting, Glichrist and Warne off successive deliveries.
Ricky Ponting was the first to go, beaten by one pushed quicker through the air. Gilchrist was adjudged lbw of a similar delivery but had cause to be aggrieved; replays showed the ball pitched well outside legstump and he had some bat on the ball. With Harbhajan on a hattrick, Shane Warne was surrounded by men around the bat, with Sadagopan Ramesh at short leg the man who would eventually claim the catch from a tentative prod. The on field umpires referred it to the third umpire, who took a long time making the tough decision before finally declaring Warne out. An emotional Harbhajan later remembered his father in the post match interview; his captain Sourav Ganguly would call it a performance that brought India back into the match.
Forced to bring himself on when Zaheer Khan walked off with cramps, Ganguly dismissed Kasprowicz lbw to leave Australia at 269/8. By the end of Day 1, Australia were 291/8 with Steve Waugh batting on 29 with Jason Gillespie for company. Australia, having dominated the first two sessions, had lost 7 wickets in one session to squander the advantage.
Day 2
Led from the front by Steve Waugh, Australia began the day at a precarious 291/8 but that would prove to be the high of the day for India. The 35 yr old Waugh batted well with Gillespie and then Glenn McGrath – and crossed numerous landmarks on the way – as he took Australia to a total of 445. In the process the Australian captain notched up his 25th Test century, crossing Sachin Tendulkar's tally of 24 hundreds at the time. Having never made a Test hundred in India, Waugh was more emotional than normal as he tugged at the red handkerchief in his pocket, took off his helmet and raised his bat to a full house Eden crowd. He also passed Javed Miandad to become the (then) 4th highest run getter in test cricket.
Waugh was given able support by Gillespie, who batted for over 3 hours, facing nearly 150 deliveries to score 46, his then-highest test score. He helped add 133 with Steve Waugh – Australia's highest 9th wicket partnership in tests against India. After he was dismissed with the scoreboard reading 402/9, Waugh rubbed more salt into the wound to add 43 more with McGrath and take Australia to a formidable total of 445. The last 2 wickets had added 176 and day 1 seemed a distant memory. Worse, however, was to come.
India began their innings poorly. Steve Waugh, with runs to work with, attacked from the beginning with as many as 7 men catching. Opener Sadagoppan Ramesh duly obliged to Jason Gillespie, edging one to Ponting in the slips without a single run on the board. Shiv Sunder Das and Rahul Dravid played out the remainder of the session to take India to 32/1 at tea. The final session again would prove the most dramatic, as India then collapsed from a cautious 34/1 to 113/8. Wickets fell regularly as Das was soon followed by the celebrated Indian middle order. Tendulkar played across one from McGrath and was adjudged lbw, Dravid lost his stumps to Warne and Ganguly was snapped up brilliantly by Steve Waugh at gully. India ended Day 2 on 128/8 with the two Hydrabadis VVS Laxman and Venkatapathy Raju at the crease, still needing 118 more to avoid the follow-on. India had lost 7 wickets in a session like the Australians the previous day and Australia looked odds-on favourites to extend their winning streak to 17.
Day 3
India showed more determination than they had done in 5 days of test cricket before this one – 3 of them in an abject 10 wicket humiliation in Mumbai. First the tail wagged (if not in Australian proportions); the last two wickets added 58 runs in the company of VVS Laxman who batting at No.6 stroked a fluent and graceful 59. Raju scored an important 30 runs, and even Venkatesh Prasad hung around for a while as India chipped away at some of the deficit. Laxman was the last man out, a tad unfairly perhaps – replays showed the ball popped up off his arm – as India were bowled out for 171, 274 in arrears. As expected, Steve Waugh asked India to follow-on.
This time though, the openers began solidly putting on 50 for the first time in the series. When Ramesh was dismissed, Ganguly sent in VVS Laxman. Rahul Dravid had been struggling for runs for a while and Laxman had been stroking the ball well before his unfortunate dismissal. Interestingly, Laxman had been asked to open the innings in this match but had refused. He seemed to pick up from where he had left off, batting serenely, and at times aggressively – a reminder that there were no demons in the pitch. Das departed, unfortunate to hit the stumps with his heels while having executed an immaculate pull shot to end a promising partnership with Laxman. Tendulkar soon followed, for a second failure in the match but Laxman found a willing ally in Sourav Ganguly. The pair set about repairing the damage done raising a hundred for the 4th wicket, but just when it seemed India would end the day with some semblance of balance, McGrath induced an edge that was lapped up gleefully by Gilchrist to dismiss Ganguly 2 runs short of a deserved half century. Out came Rahul Dravid, with scorecard reading 232/4. Laxman duly completed a hundred in Dravid's company.
India ended the day with 252 on the board for the loss of 4 wickets. Laxman had scored a masterful hundred, an unbeaten 109 and giving him company was the woefully out of form Dravid on 7. India were still trailing by 20 and while Laxman may have given India some joy, it seemed only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.
Day 4
The fourth day was one in which numerous records tumbled and the game changed dramatically with an incredible partnership between Laxman and Dravid. Laxman struck 44 fours on his way to a record-breaking double hundred. With a single off Matthew Hayden, he crossed the mark of 236 set by Sunil Gavaskar against West Indies at Chennai in 1983, for the highest score by an Indian batsman in tests. Dravid, meanwhile also reached his century and celebrated in uncharacteristic fashion gesturing to the press box, having been criticised in the media for his recent poor form.
Astonishingly, the two batted out the whole day without being dismissed and took India to 589/4, leading by 315.
Day 5
After Laxman (281) and Dravid (180) departed to standing ovations from the capacity Eden Gardens crowd. The two eventually added 376 in that game-changing stand. Zaheer Khan then scored some quick runs as India India declared on 657/7 13 overs into the final day, setting Australia a target of 384 in a minimum of 75 overs. With a required rate of over 5 runs per over, an Australian win was almost certainly out of the question. The openers Hayden and Slater again began well as Australia reached 166/3 in 45 overs. With only 30 overs remaining in the day and Steve Waugh looking solid, a draw seemed to be on the cards. But Harbhajan Singh dismissed Waugh and Ponting in quick succession to trigger a dramatic Australian capitulation. Tendulkar then removed Gilchrist for a first ball duck, completing Gilchrist's first and only king pair. It was only his 16th game, and he had won all the 15 previous games. In his next two overs, Tendulkar dismissed Hayden and trapped Warne lbw with a perfectly pitched googly. Harbhajan then took the final two wickets to take his match tally to 13 wickets and complete a sensational 171 run Indian victory. It was only the third instance of a team winning the match after following on, with Australia on the losing side on all 3 occasions.