What is the best test match in history of cricket?

The best ever rated test match in test cricket history is India vs. Australia in 2001 which was played at Eden Gardens ground, Kolkata. Now, let’s go back to 2001 and look at the Australian cricket team who were defending champions and number one ranked cricket team in both the formats.

Eden Gardens, Kolkata. 15th March 2001.

This day was the beginning of a new era of Indian cricket. It was a Thursday with an electrifying atmosphere not just at Eden Gardens but across the country. The venue was the Ganguly’s hometown, where the team snatched away victory from the Aussies and also it had put an end to Steve Waugh’s winning streak of 16 test matches.

But the fight was not as easy as it sounds. Let’s look into the summary of the test match.

DAY 1

• Steve Waugh (Capitan of Australia) won the toss and elected to bat.

• Openers Mathew Hayden and Michael Slater came into bat and went on to score 103 runs stand by the end of the first session.

• Later in the third session, Indian bowlers went against Australia and restricted them to 291/8 by the end of day 1 where the young Harbhajan Singh picked up 5wickets with a hat trick in 72nd over.

Day 2

• Aussies came on to bat to score as many runs as possible

• Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie had put 133 runs record partnership for the 9th wicket

• Steve Waugh scored his 25th century in test cricket and Australia scored 445 runs on the board with the loss of all 10 wickets.

• India came out to bat only to witness a splendid batting collapse. Day 2 ended with India batting on 128/8.

Day 3

• The third day was all about fighting back and India managed to put 171 runs on the board where Laxman scored 59 runs.

• The Indians decided to start the innings and came into the crease to play their second innings.

• India lost their first wicket for 52 runs before Laxman walked into the crease. Sachin Tendulkar and S Das departed in quick fashion.

• However, Ganguly gave a boost to innings but departed scoring 2 runs short of a half-century.

• Rahul Dravid (The Wall) came into the crease and was supporting Laxman.

• India ended the day with 252/4 with Laxman 109 runs unbeaten and Dravid supporting him. India was trailing by 20 runs.

Day 4

• The day when a miracle happened. India went on to score runs and runs.

• The entire three sessions were dominated by India.

• India ended the day at 589/4 with a whopping lead of 315 runs.

Day 5

• The day where all the records in cricket history went tumbling down the drain. Laxman and Dravid duo put 376 runs partnership on the board.

• Laxman surpassed Gavaskar’s 236 highest scores by an individual in Indian cricket history. VVS Laxman scored 281runs and on the other hand, Rahul Dravid scored 180 runs on the board.

• India declared their innings at 657/7 which was the second highest score at that time.

• Australia came onto bat with a target of 384 runs with 75 overs in hand on the last day of the test match.

• They soon raced to 166/3 in 45 overs but young chap Harbhajan Singh turned the match around in a quick session by dismissing Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh.

• Sachin Tendulkar managed to bowl well by taking 3wickets and Harbhajan Singh ended the match in a style by taking two last wickets and restricting Australia to 212 with 6.3 overs to spare.

It was a historic win in the world of cricket not only in Indian cricket and they had put an end to Australia dominance.