Adam Gilchrist secured a King Pair as a world record Australian winning streak came to an end, but the champion wicketkeeper has no doubts that the phenomenal second Test against India in Kolkata in 2001 is the greatest match he featured in.
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From the deafening din of massive crowds to the tumult of emotions experienced by the legends involved and truly exceptional individual moments in a Test of wildly swinging momentum, it is considered one of the finest matches of all time.
“That is the greatest Test match I’ve ever played in,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket
“It was phenomenal (and) fascinating. The ups. The downs. The feeling of certainty that we had not just closed out that Test, but closed out the series (and claimed) elusive Test series in India.
“And then it all changed in one day. It all changed. And I think at the end of it, we all knew we’d been a part of something truly phenomenal and unique.
“As I say, it was Test cricket of the highest order. It was, ironically, a big thrill to be a part of, even though I was the first Australian to get out first ball (in) both innings of a Test match.”
SEEKING THE HOLY GRAIL IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Australia was the best team in the world under the captaincy of Steve Waugh. But defeating India on the subcontinent was the prize they desperately wanted to define their legacy.
The arrived at Eden Gardens on a 16-match winning streak that started in 1999 with a win in Zimbabwe and was followed by a triumphant series at home against Pakistan, which included Gilchrist’s unbeaten 149 in Hobart to secure a victory against the odds.
Brett Lee’s debut in the Boxing Day Test against India featured amid an easy triumph over the Sachin Tendulkar-led Indians, before the Ausseis swept an away series in New Zealand.
The following summer Australia also dominated the West Indians, with Gilchrist standing in as captain in the third Test, before the tour to what Waugh branded the “Final Frontier”.
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Succeed against India on home soil in the Border Gavaskar Trophy and this Australian side would sit comfortably alongside Bradman’s “Invincibles” and the 1980s West Indies teams as one of cricket’s greatest ever teams.
The Australians started the series brilliantly in Mumbai with a superb 10 wicket triumph at Wankhede Stadium over India, which was now led by Sourav Ganguly.
While Tendulkar batted well with scores of 76 and 65, he was the only Indian to score a half-century as Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie proved pacy and Shane Warne and Mark Waugh turned the ball as well to bowl the hosts out for 176 and 219.
Meanwhile, Matthew Hayden was outstanding at the top of the order when scoring 119 and an unbeaten 28 in the second innings, while Gilchrist also reached a century as Australia made it an exceptionally “sweet 16” in terms of consecutive Test wins.
A DOMINANT START … BUT A NEW THREAT EMERGES
Eden Gardens was the stage. Conquering the “Final Frontier” was the goal.
With Michael Slater and Hayden notching a century stand to start the second Test, the Aussies had reason to feel confident as they carried the momentum from Mumbai.
The powerful Hayden, who used his long levers to sweep with extraordinary skill through the series, fell just three runs short of a second century in two Tests at the top of the innings.
Steve Waugh later scored the 25th century of his career, taking him one beyond Tendulkar, as the Australians compiled 445 in an extremely strong start.
As well as Australia played, an emerging Indian off-spinner named Harbhajan Singh created history by becoming the first Indian to take a hattrick in Test cricket.
Amid a remarkable coming-of-age, Singh removed Ricky Ponting for six and Gilchrist and Shane Warne for golden ducks on the way to finishing the innings with 7-123.
Mark Waugh, who had also fallen to Singh, is dubious about the call on one of the hattrick wickets though.
“(He) actually got a couple of rough decisions, Gilly,” Waugh said.
“I think (when) Harbhajan got him out in that Test match, I think it pitched about three foot outside leg stump. I’m not sure what the umpire was doing, but I think he was actually a little bit unlucky.”
Gilchrist agrees with Waugh’s assessment, though he said he and Singh often have a laugh about the delivery when they cross paths.
“It was a bit of a dodgy decision, but anyway, (there were) no third umpires in those days, so you have got to take the good with the bad,” Gilchrist said.
“Well done, Harbhajan. He says I always whinge about that one, but he bowled beautifully.”
Singh had taken 21 wickets in eight Tests leading into the Border Gavaskar Trophy series of 2001 and was a threat in Mumbai when claiming another four wickets in a well-beaten side.
But he bowled astonishingly well in the final two Tests of the series, securing 28 of the 40 Australian wickets to fall in Kolkata and Chennai. A spinning star was born. The Singh delivery would arc, dip sharply and then spring like a Cobra with significant venom.
Given the quality of the combatants, future England captain Michael Vaughan was keeping abreast of proceedings from afar and recognised Singh as a spinner capable of wreaking havoc on the international scene.
The Indian eventually taking 417 Test wickets in a 103 Test match career.
“Harbhajan had a huge amount of energy. (He had) that bouncy run up and he had a great amount of drop on the ball, and because of the revolutions that he could on the ball, he bowled (with) juice,” he said.
“It wasn’t quite the juice that Saqlain Mushtaq had but he got bounce and almost over spin, and then he obviously had the big ripping off-spinner, which he bowled on a regular basis.
“I think it was around then that Harbhajan Singh came into the thoughts of many of the teams around the world, who started studying a little bit more to try to find out who this off-spinner was.”
PUTTING THE FOOT TO THE THROAT … BEFORE A CRUCIAL GAMBLE
Having compiled 445, Australia furthered its dominance in the series when routing the Indian top-order with another devastating performance with the ball.
Jason Gillespie secured opener Sadagoppan Ramesh in the second over for a duck. Glenn McGrath trapped Tendulkar in front for 10. Shane Warne bowled Rahul Dravid for 25. And Michael Kasprowicz snared the Indian skipper Ganguly for 23.
While VVS Laxman showed resistance with a fine 59 as India was bowled out for 171, no-one could have foreseen what to come given the path of the series to date.
It is relatively rare on the sub-continent for teams to enforce the follow-on given the conditions are often arduous, with captains preferring to allow their bowlers time to recover.
But with Australia leading by 271, and with the attack having bowled less than 60 overs in the first innings, Steve Waugh decided to go for the jugular, a decision his brother Mark described as understandable given the context of the series.
It looked like reaping the richest of rewards when Gillespie removed Tendulkar for his second 10 for the match to leave India at 3-115, still requiring another 156 runs to make Australia bat again.
“It was actually an amazing series — obviously we won the first Test pretty convincingly — and for the first two days were in total control in that Test in Calcutta as well,” Mark Waugh said.
“Most captains, I guess, in India, wouldn’t enforce the fall on. But I think Stephen thought that India was ripe for the picking. They were really down and out.
“We didn’t bowl that many overs in the first innings, so we sent them back in (and) I thought it was a fair decision, actually, by Stephen to do that. And we got three reasonably quick wickets. We got Tendulkar out, as well, as one of those three wickets and really, we were in total control that game. But as cricket can sometimes do, things can change quite quickly.”
THE WALL AND THE STROKE MAKER
David Warner is too young to remember much of the phenomenal performances that unfolded on the fourth day of the famous Test at Eden Gardens in 2001.
But as a regular visitor to India, the former Australian Test opener has frequently been told just how remarkable a batter VVS Laxman was when in full flight.
A star with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League for several years, there is a photograph that sticks in Warner’s mind as a demonstration of sporting excellence.
“There’s an iconic photo of both Dravid and Laxman walking off the field,” he said.
“They were two guys who could change the course of the game. You had ‘the wall’ in Dravid and you had VVS, the stroke maker who could bat all day.
“To bat all day in that heat would have been exhausting, but two guys who would have had the capability of doing that would have been those two guys. They would have been exhausted that night.”
Australia’s decision not to enforce the follow-on proved critical. But it was not the only decisive decision with India switching the positions of Laxman and Dravid in the batting order.
Laxman strode to the crease at first drop in the 17th over of the match with the score at 1-52. When he departed a staggering 154 overs later, India was 5-608 and leading by 337 runs.
The innings was a masterpiece. He scored 281 runs from 452 balls in an innings that included 44 fours. If ever there was an example of a batter seeing the red ball like it was a watermelon, this was the occasion.
Outstanding in support and also in his own right was Dravid, who had been out of form but responded to being demoted down the order with distinction when scoring 180 from 353 balls.
Standing in the slips cordon, Mark Waugh said it felt like an extraordinarily long day as his brother rotated the bowlers and tried desperately to find a way to break “the fortress” to no avail.
The Australians used nine bowlers in all, with Ricky Ponting, Hayden, Michael Slater and even Justin Langer enduring cameos. Only the skipper and Gilchrist did not bowl.
“We never look like getting a wicket. I don’t even think they (gave us) a chance, or we created a chance. They nearly put on 400,” Waugh said.
“We just couldn’t break the fortress. We never looked like getting a wicket. And once they (had) that incredible partnership for India, we were then on the back foot, defending the game.”
The magnitude of the performance changed the mentality with which both sides approached the remainder of the Border Gavaskar Trophy Series, Gilchrist said.
Standing behind the stumps, he had the best view of what proved a horror show for Australia. But Gilchrist said that as a lover of cricket, Laxman produced a supreme performance.
“I can’t really think of a better innings for a situation, for what was required by his team to not just stabilise (them) and then try to survive in the game, but then turn it around and absolutely put the heat on us,” Gilchrist said.
“It was classy. It was technically beautiful. It was psychologically, mentally, one of the great innings, just knowing what was riding on it and how delicately it was poised.
“To produce what he did, in partnership with Dravid, it was … a masterclass that you couldn’t script. It was crushing for us at the time, but reflecting now, it was cricket in all its beauty.”
CIRCLING LIKE SHARKS
From a position of control, Hayden and Michael Slater strode to the crease with Australia now 383 runs in arrears and the series turned on its head.
The Australian top-order did not shirk the challenge and with the broad-shouldered Hayden steering the ship, another twist in the unforgettable Test appeared possible.
He and Slater combined for an opening partnership of 74 in 23 overs before Singh struck to remove the latter.
Batting like a man possessed, Justin Langer dashed off a rapid 28 from 21 balls to take Australia beyond triple figures in its run chase before also falling to Singh.
While Mark Waugh fell for a duck, the in-form pairing of Hayden and Steve Waugh steadied the ship to take Australia to 166 before ‘the Turbanator’ Singh snared his third for the innings.
And from there, it was all over. Amid the din of the crowd and the chaos unfolding, Mark Waugh remembers it felt like the crowd at Eden Gardens was fielding at short-leg, so suffocating was the atmosphere.
“We were in a position of strength, and all of a sudden, we were under pressure and we just couldn’t hang on,” he said.
“The wicket started to spin (and) the crowd was up. The pressure was just on you as a batsman, once you got out there at the start of your innings.
“If you get through the first ten balls, or the first ball for Gilly in this case, that was half the battle. But we just couldn’t stop the landslide that was coming against us.”
Singh secured Ponting for a duck later that over, which brought Gilchrist to the crease. If Laxman was seeing the ball like a watermelon, the bat in the Aussie champion’s hands felt as wide as a twig in the latter stages of the series.
If he received a questionable decision in the first innings, there was no mistake in the second.
With Tendulkar looking like a world-beater with the ball, instead of simply the bat, in tandem with Singh, the Indian inflicted in the overawed Gilchrist the ignominy of being the first Australian to score a King Pair when out for a second straight golden duck.
“(I was) absolutely plum to Sachin. He set a trap for me and I fell for it,” Gilchrist said.
“I was just completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation, with near enough to 100,000 people in there. It was crazy. But India, they smelled blood. They were circling like sharks, and they attacked and they got us.”
With Gilchrist out, the end came quickly. Tendulkar snared Hayden LBW a couple of overs later for 67 and then Warne for a duck soon after in a remarkable spell by the part-timer.
Singh returned to halt the resistant, if futile, fight by Jason Gillespie and Glenn McGrath.
Having trailed by 284 runs after the first innings, India pulled off an astonishing 171 run victory in one of the most remarkable Tests ever played.
THE CELEBRATIONS THAT RUBBED SALT INTO A RAW WOUND
Exhausted by the emotional rollercoaster that occurred at Eden Gardens, the Australians were not in a position to retreat to lick their wounds before regrouping for the Chennai Test.
As Gilchrist told foxsports.com.au when India last toured Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy, the reminders of what had unfolded were ever-present.
“I remember sitting after the game in Calcutta and both teams had to fly down to Chennai and we would end up in the change rooms and it was a charter flight both teams were on,” he said.
“We were left sitting there, waiting and waiting and waiting, whilst the Indians celebrated back at the ground. They finally made their way on and, understandably, (had) pretty smug looks on their faces.”
Laxman, meanwhile, said that the other passengers on the flight “stood up and gave us a standing ovation and that was a sight I could never forget.”
Hayden was again imperious in Chennai, making a commanding 203, while Mark Waugh also found form with 70 as the Australians recorded 391 in the first innings.
But Tendulkar, who made a century, Laxman and Dravid were again superb to give India the upper-hand in the series with a first innings total of 501.
Mark Waugh made another half century in the second innings but the Australian top-order failed to make the most of promising starts when reaching 264, setting the hosts 155 to win the series.
It was a near run thing, with Colin Miller bowling superbly to out-perform Warne with the ball. Only another 66 from Laxman was enough to secure India a remarkable series.
“Right from 1994, when I played for India’s under-19s against Australia’s under-19s, one thing I found was that they were the most sporting opposition I came across,” Laxman said.
“They used to play the game really hard on the field, but they would be the first to congratulate an opposition if they did well.
“I still remember Gilly congratulating me. I think the way I was batting, it was almost that he was appreciating my efforts without compromising on the aggression or wanting to get me out as a keeper.”
The ‘Final Frontier’ remained unconquered and Steve Waugh, who was given out for handling the ball in the Chennai Test, had a final message for Laxman.
“I still remember at the end of the series, all of the Australians came into the changing room (and) Steve Waugh gave me a ball, the ball that they used in the third Test, second innings, and said, ‘You screwed up our series’,” Laxman said.
BORDER GAVASKAR TROPHY
1st Test, 22-26 November: Australia vs India — Optus Stadium, Perth (1:20pm AEDT)
2nd Test, 6-10 December: Australia vs India — Adelaide Oval, Adelaide (3pm AEDT)
3rd Test, 14-18 December: Australia vs India — The Gabba, Brisbane (11:20pm AEDT)
4th Test, 26-30 December: Australia vs India — MCG, Melbourne (10:30am AEDT)
5th Test, 3-7 January: Australia vs India — SCG, Sydney (10:30am AEDT)
HOW TO WATCH
All five games will be broadcast LIVE to Foxtel and Kayo on Australia’s only dedicated 24/7 cricket channel FOX CRICKET.
