Two old pros putting on a show in Kolkata or one young gun taking on all comers in Chattogram? Which was better?
ESPNcricinfo staff12-May-2025Update: This poll has ended. The IND-AUS 2001 Kolkata Test moves to the round of 16.The Dravid-Laxman El Clasico – Kolkata, 2001If someone came up with a script for this kind of a match before it unfolded in reality, it would have probably been rejected for being too unrealistic and its factors too exaggerated.A Test hat-trick against the world’s top side at the age of 20. A follow-on enforced. A historic partnership to turn the tables. A record individual score by an Indian. And a thrilling end in front of a near packed stadium to level the series and end Australia’s long-standing winning streak of 16 games.But all of it did transpire. After Harbhajan Singh dented Australia with a hat-trick on the first day, Steve Waugh scored his maiden Test century on Indian soil to lead his team to a strong 445. In reply, India were bundled out for 171 and asked to follow-on.They were then 232 for 4 – still 42 behind – when VVS Laxman was joined by Rahul Dravid and the two of them played out the entire fourth day with strips of towel around their neck to beat the heat, humidity, dehydration and discomfort with regular treatment from the physio in all session breaks. They saw off nine bowlers with two chanceless knocks that were instantly stamped into the game’s history. Laxman’s 281 lasted ten-and-a half-hours, Dravid’s 180, nearly seven and a half. They helped India set Australia a target of 384. The visitors succumbed under pressure on the last day against India’s spinners as Harbhajan finished with a tally of 13 for 196.Mayers turns tables on Test debut – Chattogram, 2021Trailing by 171 runs in the first innings, batting last in Asia against four Bangladesh spinners, chasing nearly 400 when anything over 200 was preposterous, and doing it all with three debutants in the side. An inexperienced West indies batting line-up defied the odds, with debutant Kyle Mayers’ bringing up a double-century, to bat for the last four sessions of the game in a successful pursuit of 395 runs with three wickets still in hand. Mayers unbeaten on 210.The match in Chattogram started and ended well for West Indies but there were many twists and turns in between. Four wickets from Jomel Warrican had reduced Bangladesh to 248 for 6 before Mehidy Hasan Miraz took the hosts to 430 with his maiden Test hundred. Mehidy continued to shine, claiming 4 for 58 to help restrict West Indies to 259 before Mominul Haque led them to 223 for 8 declared not long before tea on the fourth dayBangladesh were the hot favourites having set West Indies a target of 395, more so when the visitors lost their top three – to Mehidy – for 59 runs, including captain Kraigg Brathwaite. Nkrumah Bonner and Mayers came together with the ball turning and bouncing nicely, and Mayers even got a life on 28 before it was stumps. The last day was nothing less than a miracle.Bonner and Mayers hung on for two wicketless sessions in a fourth-wicket partnership of 216. But the match turned again as Bonner and Jermaine Blackwood fell in quick succession. West Indies responded with a counterattack. Mayers was at his striking best in the last hour, scoring 49 of the remaining 61 runs in just 40 balls, and 80 in a century stand with Joshua Da Silva. He struck 20 fours, seven sixes and the winning runs with 15 balls left in the game to become the sixth batter to bring up a double-century on Test debut and pull off the fifth-highest successful chase in Tests.