On This Day, December 14, 2003: Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman do the rescue act as India were in deep trouble during the second Test at Adelaide. After the coin fell in the favour of the then-Australian Captain Steve Waugh who opted to bat first. Australia riding high on Ricky Ponting’s sensational double century (242 off 352 balls), finished their first innings with a mammoth 556 runs on the board. In reply, India failed to get off to a good start and were struggling at 85/4 at one stage. However, what followed that was a historic partnership whereby Rahul Dravid at the number three position while Laxman at six joined hands together to save tbe team. They played free flowing cricket and displayed extraordinary resilience and produced magnanimous batting performances.
While Dravid played attacking cricket and was solid as ever, Laxman showed his classy wrist work and impeccable abiliyy of milking runs to put the ball between the fielders. As a result, Rahul Rahul Dravid went on to score a memorable double century (233 off 446 balls) while Laxman was dismissed just short of 150(148 off 282 balls) by pacer Andy Bichel. But by then, the duo had already put up a massive stand of 303 runs. Dravid’s marathon knock came to an end as pacer Jason Gillespie dismissed him.
India had gone past the 500 run mark in reply to Australia’s score of 523/10. Given that both teams had scored over 500 runs, a draw was on the cards for most of the fans and cricket experts alike. But the Indian bowlers ensured that these two knocks will end up on the winning side.
In the second innings, pacer Ajit Agarkar bowled a brilliant bowling spell and in the process claimed a six-wicket haul (6/41). This triggered the collapse of the Australia as they got bowled out for 196 runs. India needed 230 runs to win in what seemed a achievable target even in those days of Test cricket, India then pushed their case for a historical victory in Adelaide in 2003.
In the second innings, India got a decent start keeping in mind the required target, but soon wickets fell as they were again four down with a score reading 170 runs on the board. But Rahul Dravid continued his good form and hit the winning runs for Team India and remained unbeaten on 72*. With this India etched their name in one of the greatest comeback win in Australia.
