Top 5 individual efforts in Border-Gavaskar Trophy history

HALFWAY through the second Test of the series, and already the 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy has produced some stunning individual efforts.

Steve Smith’s second-innings century on a dustbowl at Pune, Steve O’Keefe jagging 12 wickets in a match, Nathan Lyon rattling off eight victims in an innings – the Australians are doing it all.

How do these efforts stack up against the all-time great performances in this most intense of cricketing rivalries?

Here are five of the best from series past in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy era.

VVS Laxman – Kolkata, 2001

There is perhaps no single performance in the history of Test cricket that has turned the tide of a series like Laxman did at Eden Gardens in 2001.

Australia had won the first of three Tests and were cruising towards victory in the second after knocking 445 and dismissing India for 171.

Then Steve Waugh enforced the follow-on and everything changed.

The Aussies knew what Laxman was about after his superb 167 in a losing cause at Sydney a year earlier.

He had shown good form with a fighting 59 in the first innings at Kolkata, so Sourav Ganguly promoted him from number six to first drop.

VVS scored 281 and shared a fifth-wicket partnership of 376 with Rahul Dravid in what is still widely regarded as the greatest innings ever played by an Indian batsman in Test cricket.

Exhausted and shellshocked, Australian fell well short of the required 394 for victory and went on to lose a series that looked in the bag.

Harbhajan Singh – Chennai, 2001

‘The Turbanator’ played a huge role in the famous Kolkata Test of 2001, yet he saved his very best for the final match of the series.

Looking to bounce back hard, Australia started strong as Matthew Hayden steered them to 4/340 batting first.

Then Harbhajan did what Harbhajan does best, claiming each of the last six wickets – including Hayden on 203 – to dismiss the Aussies for 391.

That was just a teaser.

After India had knocked 501 to take a healthy lead, Harbhajan struck eight times in a second innings where Mark Waugh was the only Australian bat to pass 50.

The hosts chased down the 150-odd required as Harbhajan finished with match figures of 15/217 and the man of the series award.

Rahul Dravid – Adelaide, 2003

The Adelaide Test of 2003 witnessed one of the hardest-fought man of the match awards in living memory.

Ricky Ponting appeared to have it sewn up when he bashed 242 as Australia amassed a lazy 556 in the first innings.

But India, buoyed by their come-from-behind series win at home two years earlier, refused to lie down.

Again it was Dravid and Laxman who turned things around, but this time it was the former who took the lead with 233.

Ponting and company could not back it up in the second innings, falling for 196 as Ajit Agarkar (yes, remember him?) took six wickets.

Solid as a rock, Dravid stroked an unbeaten 72 as India took the series leads and ensured they would keep hold of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Virender Sehwag – Melbourne, 2003

‘Viru’ changed the way people though about opening batsmen in Test cricket, and few innings provide a better example than this one.

It was five minutes to tea on day one of the 2003 Boxing Day Test when he hoiked a full toss to Nathan Bracken in the deep.

The catch was made, and India were four wickets down with 311 on the board.

Sehwag had scored 195 of those runs.

If he had made better contact with that rank one from Simon Katich, there is every chance the destroyer from Delhi would have notched 300 himself by stumps.

The likes of Chris Gayle and David Warner have continued in similar style since, but you will not see a more powerful innings from an opener anywhere or in any era.

Michael Clarke – Mumbai, 2004

Few players boast as lengthy and diverse a Border-Gavaskar highlight reel as ‘Pup’.

He made seven Test centuries against India, bookended by a dazzling 151 on debut at Nagpur in 2004 and a captain’s knock of 210 at Adelaide in 2013.

Yet some of Clarke’s most memorable contributions came with the ball in hand.

Only four Tests into his career, his left-arm tweakers snared six wickets inside seven overs as India collapsed from 4/153 to be all out for 205 in the second innings at Mumbai.

Australia failed to finish the job, however, falling 14 runs short of victory as Harbhajan Singh and Murali Karthik weaved their magic on a decaying pitch.

Honourable mentions

Sachin Tendulkar – You can’t have an article like this without mentioning the great man. Sachin scored loads of runs against Australia, but was there ever a standout knock in the mould of those by Dravid, Laxman, or Sehwag? His 148 at Sydney as a youngster might be his best contender.

Brett Lee – When this guy made his Test debut at Melbourne in 1999, it looked as though Australia had unearthed a once-in-a-generation fast bowler. It never quite panned out that way, but his early efforts were outstanding and India were the unwilling recipients.

Damien Martyn – Much maligned and oft underrated, Martyn was the key man when Australia broke their duck on Indian soil back in 2004. Innings of 114 and 97 sealed the series at Nagpur and earned the stylish West Australian well-deserved man of the series honours.

Ricky Ponting – Having scored multiple double hundreds against India, ‘Punter’ can count himself unlucky not to have one of them in the top five. Dravid’s dual-innings effort pipped him at Adelaide in 2003, while Sehwag’s MCG slog-fest got our vote over the 257 Ponting went on to make.

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