IND v AUS 2020: 5 times India rose from the dead to bury the Australians
India takes the field against Australia on 27th November for the first ODI after 290 days.
There has been a fierce rivalry as the best players of the game have come from both these nations. Over the years, these two teams have played some exceptional cricket and entertained us with beautiful team performances and individual brilliance.
Let's look back at some of the most exciting matches, where India came back from behind to hand the Aussies unlikely defeats.
5.The brilliance of the modern-day chase master (ICC WT20 2016 Match 31)
This was a must-win match for both India and Australia. The winner would play the semi-finals against West Indies, the eventual winners of the tournament. Australia won an all-important toss and elected to bat first.
Batting first, Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch scored 60 runs in the powerplay. The Indian spin duo of Jadeja and Ashwin pulled back things in their favour. The runs and boundaries dried up for the Aussies. But Peter Neville, Shane Watson and Glenn Maxwell played handy knocks towards the end as Australia ended with 160/6 after 20 overs.
India's batting got off to a rough start. Nathan Coulter Nile dismissed Shikhar Dhawan early and Shane Watson scalped both Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina. Then Virat Kohli got stuck in with two game-changing partnerships, with Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. In the end, Kohli helped India chased down the target with his knock of 82 runs in 51 balls and helped India catapult into the semi-finals.
Brief Scores:
Australia: 160/6: Aaron Finch (43 runs in 34 balls), Glenn Maxwell (31 runs in 28 balls), Hardik Pandya (2/36 in 4 overs) and Yuvraj Singh (1/19 in 3 overs)
India: 161/4: Virat Kohli (82* runs of 51 balls), Yuvraj Singh (21 runs in 18 balls), Shane Watson (2/33 in 4 overs) and Nathan Coulter Nile (1/33 in 4 overs).
Result: India won by 6 wickets.
4. The Wall and his affinity with the Australian bowlers (Border Gavaskar Trophy 2002-2003 2nd Match)
The first test in the 2002-03 Border-Gavaskar trophy ended in a draw. India was looking to defend its trophy, along with being the first-ever Asian team to have won a test series in Australia. Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and decided to bat for on the Adelaide pitch.
Ponting scored an excellent 242 in just 352 balls, coming in to bat at number 3. A sturdy knock of 75 runs from Simon Katich and a lower order late blitz from Jason Gillespie powered the Australians to a mammoth total of 556 in their first innings.
India in their second innings scored 523 all out. The wall, Rahul Dravid and his partner in crime, VVS Laxman batted out some eye-pleasing innings as the latter scored 148 runs and the former scored 233 runs in their respective stays at the crease.
The Indian bowling attack didn't allow the Australian batting attack to take a mammoth lead as they were folded for 196 runs in the innings. The Indians chased the total down in the fourth innings on the back of a half-century from Rahul Dravid. They won the match by 4 wickets and took a 1-0 series lead.
Brief Scores:
Australia 1st innings: 556 all out: Ricky Ponting (242 runs in 352 balls), Anil Kumble (5/154 in 43 overs)
India 1st innings: 523 all out: Rahul Dravid (233 runs in 446 balls), Andy Bichel (4/118 in 28 overs)
Australia 2nd innings: 196 all out: Adam Gilchrist (43 runs in 45 balls), Ajit Agarkar (6/41 in 16.2 overs)
India 2nd innings: 233/6: Rahul Dravid (72 runs in 170 balls*), Stuart MacGill (2/101 in 24.4 overs)
Result: India won by 4 wickets.
3.Harbhajan Singh's mantra of spin it to win it (Australia's tour to India, fourth test, 2004)
This was a dead-rubber match for India. The Australians had beaten them out 2-0 and drawn one test at Chennai. Both teams arrived in Mumbai for the final match of the series. India won the toss and elected to bat first on a fresh green wicket.
India was off to a terrible start as the openers, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag were dismissed cheaply. Dravid batted out throughout the innings, but could only manage 31 runs. The middle-order had failed for India and a late contribution from the lower order wasn't enough for the team as they were bowled out for 104 runs.
Australia amassed 203 runs batting in the second innings. Damien Martyn top-scored for them with 55 runs.
In the second innings, trailing by 99 runs, India scored 205 runs as Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman chipped in with half-centuries. The Aussies needed to chase 103 to whitewash India in their own backyard.
In reply, the Indian bowlers came out in glory. Harbhajan Singh and Murali Karthik worked picked up 8 wickets among them, with Harbhajan taking a fifer. Australia were bowled out for a paltry score of 93 runs as India won the test match by 13 runs.
Brief Score:
India 1st innings: 104 all out: Rahul Dravid (31 runs in 104 balls*), Jason Gillespie (4/29 in 12 overs)
Australia 1st innings: 203 all out: Damien Martyn (55 runs in 114 balls), Anil Kumble (5/90 in 19 overs)
India 2nd innings: 205 all out: VVS Laxman (69 runs in 127 balls), Micheal Clarke (6/9 in 6.2 overs)
Australia 2nd innings: 93 all out: Matthew Hayden (24 runs in 30 balls), Harbhajan Singh (5/29 in 10.5 overs)
Result: India won by 13 runs.
2. Vijay Shankar's heroics with the ball in the final over (2nd match, Paytm ODI Series,2019.)
Australia had toured India early in 2019 and had blanked them in the T20's, defeating them in both the matches. The ODI series had commenced and India had trumped the Australian counterparts, beating them by 6 wickets. On a fresh Nagpur wicket, Australian captain Aaron Finch won the toss and had elected to bowl.
India got off to a shaky start as Rohit Sharma lost his wicket in the first over. Shikhar Dhawan couldn't convert his start into a substantial inning. Indian captain Virat Kohli and Vijay Shankar strung an important partnership of 81 runs. The Indian captain's century and handy knocks from Vijay Shankar and Ravindra Jadeja helped India put up 250 runs on the board.
The Australian innings has started well in comparison to the Indian innings. Finch and Usman Khawaja made the Indian bowlers toil for a wicket as they stitched a strong opening stand of 83 runs. Kuldeep Yadav opened the doors for the Indian bowling attack, but the Australians were steady in the chase and looked favourites to win the match after dominating the early and the middle overs.
It was all down to the last over. Stoinis, who got a fifty and was well settled and looked to take the game away from India, along with Nathon Lyon had hit Mohammad Shami for 9 runs in the 49th over and brought down the equation down to 11 runs in the last over. Captain Kohli entrusted Vijay Shankar with the final over, and all-rounder did not disappoint him as he snapped up the well-settled Stoinis and Zampa in a space of three deliveries to help India win the match by 8 runs and go 2-0 up in the series.
Brief Scores:
India: 250 all out: Virat Kohli (116 runs in 120 balls), Vijay Shankar (46 runs in 41 balls), Pat Cummins (4/29 in 9 overs), Adam Zampa (2/62 in 10 overs)
Australia: 242 all out: Marcus Stoinis (52 runs in 65 balls), Peter Handscomb (48 runs in 59 balls), Kuldeep Yadav (3/54 in 10 overs), Jasprit Bumrah (2/29 in 10 overs), Vijay Shankar (2/15 in 1.3 overs)
Result: India won by 8 runs.
1. The Very Very Special Laxman's Show (Border Gavaskar Trophy 2nd Test 2001-02)
This match will forever be etched in the memories of Indian test match history. India had lost the first test match to Australia and both the teams came to Kolkata to play the second test match of the 3 match series.
Micheal Slater and Matthew Hayden gave Australia the perfect start as they had a good opening partnership among themselves. Justin Langer came in at three and struck a half-century and Steve Waugh, the then Australian captain, played a magnificent knock of 110 runs. A late attack from Jason Gillespie towards the end propelled Australia's score to 445 all out in the first innings.
The Indian batting could not reply in their first innings as apart from VVS Laxman, no batsman could get to a 50 as the Indian innings folded for 171 in the second innings. Australia imposed a follow on for the target, and a heartbreaking 2-0 lead by Australia appeared possible for all the Indian fans.
But something magical followed soon. After the Indian openers fell, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman played such knocks that left India in awe, watching their TV sets for the test match. Both the legends batted their heart out against the mighty Australian bowling attack and scored 180 runs and 281 runs respectively to up 657/7 dec on the board and set the mighty Australians a huge target of 383 runs to chase in the final innings.
At this point of the test match, the Australians were still hopeful of a draw and retaining the lead of 1-0 up in the series. But Harbhajan Singh had different plans. The off-spinner, not only took 6 wickets but also bowled out the pillars of Australian batting as they bundled out Aussies for 212 runs and won the match by 171 runs to settle 1-1 in the series.
Brief Scores:
Australia 1st innings: 445 all out: Steve Waugh (110 runs in 203 balls), Harbhajan Singh (7/123 in 37.5 overs)
India 1st innings: 171 all out: VVS Laxman (59 runs in 83 balls), Glenn McGrath (4/18 in 14 overs)
India 2nd innings (f/o): 657/7 dec: VVS Laxman (281 runs in 452 balls*), Glenn McGrath (3/103 in 39 overs)
Australia 2nd innings: 212 all out: Matthew Hayden (67 runs in 118 balls), Harbhajan Singh (6/73 in 30.3 overs).
Result: India won by 171 runs.
Which are your strongest memories among the India Australia encounters?