In the wake of Saturday's India vs WI draw, Rajneesh Gupta comes up with six exciting drawn Tests involving India
In the wake of Saturday's India vs WI draw, Rajneesh Gupta comes up with six exciting drawn Tests involving India
Second Test v WI, Mumbai, 1948-49
Set a victory target of 361 runs in 395 minutes at the Brabourne Stadium, India were 90 for three at close of the penultimate day with Lala Amarnath scoring a brilliant 39. At lunch on the final day, they were 175 for three, and on resumption Rusi Modi and Vijay Hazare attacked the bowling. Modi was out for 86, followed by Mankad. Hazare, who scored a masterful 122, was bowled by Prior Jones within sight of victory. The cricket after tea was exciting. Though SN Banerjee and Hemu Adhikari were out in quick succession, Dattu Phadkar and Ghulam Ahmed ticked off the runs and when six runs were needed, umpire AR Joshi pulled out the stumps with one and a half minutes left! The draw enabled West Indies to win the series 1-0.
England wicketkeeper David Bairstow runs out India captain Srinivas
Venkataraghavan during the close finish of the fourth and final Test
at the Oval in 1979. The game ended in a draw and England won the
series 1-0. Pic/Getty Images
Fourth Test vs England, The Oval, 1979
Chasing a target of 438 runs in a minimum of 498 minutes, India needed 15 off the final over with two wickets left. They could score only six runs off the first five balls as crowd disturbance did not allow the last ball to be bowled. India's superb bid to become the first visiting country to win a Cornhill Test was launched by a stand of 213 between Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan. Gavaskar batted for 490 minutes, faced 443 balls and hit 21 fours in his mammoth 221. When he was fourth out, India required 49 off 7.4 overs, but, in a gripping finish, lost momentum and confidence against accurate bowling from Ian Botham and Peter Willey.u00a0
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Vijay Hazare
Second Test vs Aus, Adelaide 1980-81
After losing the first Test at Sydney, India came up with an improved performance at the Adelaide Oval where Sandeep Patil scored a brilliant 174 against Denis Lillee, Len Pascoe and Rodney Hogg. However, India's second innings was in tatters on the afternoon of Day Five. Requiring to bat for four and a half hours for a draw, India achieved their desired result when the game ended with the scoreboard reading 135 for eight. Karsan Ghavri and Shivlal Yadav batted astutely to deny the Aussies before Yashpal Sharma took 169 minutes for his 13 runs.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Second Test vs Aus, Melbourne, 1985-86
Lack of urgency cost India a famous win. Chasing 126 and with most of the post-lunch play onwards on the last day to bat, India scored at 2.36 per over before bad weather intervened. India finished at 59-2 on a turning track in which they had dominated from Day 1, restricting the Aussies to 262 and then responding with 445. Some dubious umpiring and India's unwillingness to attack then saw Australia go from 231-9 to 308 in their second essay, with Border scoring 163. Still, they could have won when they came out to bat last.
Third Test vs NZ, Wellington, 2008-09
Under MS Dhoni India seemed content with a 1-0 series lead and did not push for victory in the third Test. India gained a first innings lead of 182 runs, but instead of giving bowlers ample time to bowl New Zealand out for the second time, India batted and batted. They declared the innings only after the lead was 616. They were left to rue for their ultra-defensive approach as NZ ended with 281 runs with eightu00a0 wickets down.
Third Test vs West Indies, Dominica, 2011
India were given a modest victory target of 180 runs in 47 overs. The odds were in India's favour as they needed 86 runs off 15 overs with seven wickets in hand. Surprisingly, skipper MS Dhoni thought it was beyond them and called off the chase!
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