Australia came to Kolkata in March 2001 having won sixteen Test matches in a row, a sequence that had never been matched. They had won the first Test in Mumbai in three days. Steve Waugh called India the final frontier, the one place his great side had not conquered. On the third morning at Eden Gardens they enforced the follow-on, and by the fifth afternoon they had lost. It is still the match that Indian cricket points to when it wants to explain itself.
Hat-trick and collapse
The first two days belonged to Australia, with one exception. Harbhajan Singh, a 20-year-old off-spinner recalled after months out of the side, took India's first Test hat-trick, removing Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne in three balls on the first afternoon. He finished with 7 for 123, but Steve Waugh made 110 and Matthew Hayden 97, and Australia reached 445.
India were bowled out for 171. Only VVS Laxman, with 59 from 83 balls, looked at ease, and Waugh asked India to bat again, 274 behind, with more than two and a half days left. Sourav Ganguly, India's captain, made one decision that mattered: Laxman, who had batted at six in the first innings, would go in at three.
The fourth day
By the end of the third day India were 254 for 4, still 20 behind, with Laxman on 109 and Rahul Dravid, dropped down to six and short of form, on 7. What followed on 14 March 2001 has no real parallel. The two of them batted through all ninety overs of the fourth day without being separated. Laxman drove and flicked through the leg side with wrists that made Warne's spin look like an invitation; Dravid defended, then drove, then defended again. Australia used eight bowlers. Warne went for 152 runs. The crowd, 90,000 strong, roared every run, and by the close India were 589 for 4.
Laxman was finally out on the fifth morning for 281, from 452 balls over 631 minutes, then the highest Test score ever made for India. Dravid made 180. The stand was worth 376. Ganguly declared at 657 for 7, setting Australia 384 in 75 overs, a target nobody thought they would chase and nobody thought they would fail to defend either.
The last session
Australia were 161 for 3 at tea, safe. Then Harbhajan removed Hayden, and the spinners went through them. Tendulkar, bowling leg-breaks, took the wickets of Gilchrist, Hayden and Warne in a spell of 3 for 31. Harbhajan finished with 6 for 73 in the innings and 13 in the match. Australia were all out for 212 with a few overs left. India had won by 171 runs, only the third side in Test history to win after following on, and the first since 1981.
Why it matters
Australia's run ended at sixteen. India won the series 2-1 in Chennai a week later, and the side that Ganguly built, with Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan, became the first Indian team that expected to win anywhere. Ask an Indian cricket follower for the greatest Test innings they have seen and most will say 281, without needing the name.
