The 5 highest impact batting performances by an
Indian against Australia since 1947-48. For the first time - in a match/ series
context.
Most batting performances are seen in an innings
context, which is highly inadequate as that is such an incomplete picture.
Since the DNA of Test cricket is Test matches made up of two innings, and those
matches are in turn part of a series, the big picture is the series – that is
the war, as it were. Test matches are battles, an innings merely a phase in a
battle.
To provide this context to cricket performances, we
bring you the five best Test batting performances in a match/series context, in
the history of India-Australia Test cricket. Most of these will perhaps not be
a surprise but their order may be.
All of them are Series-Defining performances, which
gives them values higher than what their Match IMPACT numbers say.
1. VVS Laxman – 59 & 281 v Australia, Kolkata
2001
Match Batting IMPACT: 11.92
Brief Scores: Aus 445 & 212, Ind 171 & 657/7
– India won by 171 runs
It is hard to imagine any batting performance having
a higher impact in Test cricket history. The facts around this performance are
as legendary as the performance itself. 16 consecutive world-record wins for
Australia who are 1-0 up in the 3-Test series, Australia make 445, India 171.
VVS Laxman coming in at 88 for 4 in the first innings, which soon becomes 129
for 9, playing the only substantial innings – a fluent 59 off 83 balls, with an
unbelievable twelve boundaries (in the context of the game, where run-scoring
seems so difficult). India follow on, Laxman promoted up the order comes in at
52 for 1. 556 more runs would be scored, bowlers like McGrath, Gillespie, Warne
and Kasprowicz would be thwarted like never before, or since, more than ten
hours of play would transpire - before Laxman finally would get out for 281 off
452 balls – 44 boundaries in them. We’re keeping the romance out of this
(enough has been written on this in that vein) – the facts are spine-tingling
enough – from being 222 behind when Laxman walked in, to being 384 ahead when
he got out - no one has traversed a
journey this long, and this deep, in Indian cricket history. It’s a
rags-to-riches cricket story – as his team went on to win the next Test and the
series. And changed the course of Indian cricket history.
2. R Dravid – 25 & 180 v Australia, Kolkata 2001
Match Batting IMPACT – 7.87
Brief Scores: Aus 445 & 212, Ind 171 & 657/7
– India won by 171 runs
For too long, Dravid’s performance in the same match
has been seen as a supporting role. If Dravid had got 20 runs more, the romance
around his performance would increase considerably and maybe history would
remember this differently. But the facts are – coming in to bat at 232 for 4
(as the last recognized batsman) a demotion for the first time in his career
from no. 3 to no. 6 (after a laboured 25 in the first innings) – an
international cricket life on the line. 42 runs from making Australia bat
again, on a good pitch that shows no sign of breaking up. With just one ball
separating two highly disparate destinies – through this fragile reality Dravid
resumes his innings on 14th March 2001, on his overnight score of 7, hoping his
partner, though well-set on 109, is not satiated yet (a quintessential Indian
shortcoming). About 7 hours and 335 runs later, the duo is still not separated
– India 315 runs ahead, and visions of victory entering incredulous Indian
consciousness. India would go on to win (thanks to Harbhajan Singh) in the last
day – which, of course, gave the match its legendary status and these two
batting performances their high impact. How could it have been otherwise – can
life, even in all its indifference, deny any moment such a high degree of poetry?
3. R Dravid – 233 & 72 not out v Australia, Adelaide 2003
Match Batting IMPACT – 7.67
Brief Scores: Aus 556 & 196, Ind 523 & 233/6
– India won by 4 wickets
A rare momentum-changing performance that changed
the way the series would be fought .
The most interesting thing about this performance is
that Dravid’s 233 actually had a slightly
lower impact than his fourth innings unbeaten knock of 72. It seems staggering
at first, when you look at the circumstances of the first innings – handling a
mini-collapse when it had become 85 for 4 at one point (thus handling
considerable pressure). Adding 303 runs with Laxman, then 135 more runs with the
rest. Making the highest individual score overseas by an India – yes, he did
all that, but the context of the match tells the full story. The first half of
the match yielded 1079 runs (of which he scored 233; Ponting made 242; Laxman
148; Katich 75; even Gillespie made 48), the second half yielded 429 (of which
he scored 72; no-one crossed 50) – just 6% more proportionately in the first
innings. This was overtaken by the value of making the 72 in a substantial
fourth innings chase (the rare occurrence that often defines legacies), even
though no pressure came through the falling of quick wickets (though they kept
falling on-and-off) - Dravid himself played a big part with his calm presence –
there was no panic; he kept the innings together. He would later say his fierce
motivation was the desperation to avoid the so-near-yet-so-far heartbreak he
and his team had experienced a few times in the recent past. Fact is – that
unbeaten 72 would have had a classic status in Indian cricket history, even if
he’d scored a duck in the first innings. The reverse may not have been true
because India probably wouldn’t have won the Test otherwise. A good example of
how circumstances and context have a big say in the calculation of impact.
4. Nawab of Pataudi jnr 86 & 53 v Australia,
Bombay 1964
Match Batting IMPACT – 5.80
Brief Scores: Aus 320 & 274, Ind 341 & 256/8
– India won by 4 wickets
A classic from the 1960s –
when a 23-year-old prince (and India’s youngest-ever captain till date) led
India, in every sense of the word, to a memorable win after being 0-1 down in
the series. India was lucky that, shortly after the start of the match, Australian
batsman Norman O’Neil withdrew with stomach problems and took no further part
in the match. But even then, Australia put up 320 and had India at 149 for 4
when the one-eyed prince walked out. There wasn’t much batting to follow but
high class Test batting for over three and a half hours took the score to 293
until Pataudi Jr was out for a heroic 86. A rejuvenated India added almost 40
more but Australia came back strongly in the second innings and set India 254
to win – a very high ask in that era. Thanks to night-watchman Surti, the Nawab
came out even later than the first innings (many experts feel he should have
batted at no. 4 all his life), at 113 for 5, which shortly became 122 for 6.
For the second time in the match, Pataudi took charge (this time with Vijay
Manjrekar, who also came out late) and brought stability that seemed occidental
in its assuredness – which would eventually be Pataudi Jr’s greatest
contribution to Indian cricket. He was out 30 runs from the target though;
Chandu Borde’s unbeaten 30 ensured none of this was in vain. 42,000 people
watched the match, which ended half-an-hour before close – and gave India its
most memorable Test win of that era. It was
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