Australia vs India 2018-19: Top 4 Indian Innings on Australian Soil in Tests
The important tour of Australia is going to start on 21st of November with T20 series followed by red ball cricket. With a strong bowling line-up and a decent batting order, the Indian team looks to put up a decent show down-under.
We are yet to win a test series there but there have been instances where we have dominated the hosts especially after the 2000s. The 2003-04 was a very close fought series ending with one win apiece.
That famous win in Adelaide will always be one of the finest overseas victories thanks to Dravid’s 233 and Laxman’s 148.
The 2007-08 series was full of controversies and adversities, but the victory at Perth after the Sydney Gate was important proving the capability of the team that time even after so many decisions going against us in the previous Tests.
After that we have gone to Australia twice, once in 2011-12 where we suffered a humiliation at their hands with a 4-0 loss.
The last time we played them in their home soil was in 2014-15 where the matches were closer than the scoreline (3-0 to hosts).
Even though we lost the series, which was when we got to find the rejuvenated Kohli who scored four tons in the series after a forgettable series. Similarly, our Indian batsmen have had some great outing in the past.
Let’s look at some of the top innings against the Kangaroos in their own backyard:
#1 'The Wall' comes to the party in Adelaide
Every cricket fan in India cannot forget 16th of Dec 2003 because of that famous win in Adelaide.
Rahul Dravid had scored 305 runs in that match. It was an innings of pure class and patience that brought India the victory after 22 years in Australia. At 85 for 4,India were heading towards another collapse.
The Dravid-Laxman combo got together and tailored a 303 run solid stand taking India to 523 with a trail of 33 runs.
As Harsha Bhogle once said,” Ask him(Dravid) to walk on water and he’ll ask, how many kilometers?” meaning he would fight until the last second to get his team out of trouble.
He had batted for more than 500 minutes and his innings consisted of 23 fours and a six off Gillespie to get to his century.
We were able to restrict them to 196 in the second innings leading to a stiff target of 230 which was chased comfortably with Dravid scoring the winning runs remaining unbeaten on 72 runs.