22nd September 1986 was the last day of the 1st Test match during Australia’s tour of India. A thoroughly entertaining Test match, played in the extreme heat of Chennai resulted in Test cricket’s second Tied match after the classic at Brisbane between Australia and West Indies during 1960-61 series.
Australia as the better team were in driving position from the beginning but thanks to very declaration from Allan Border, it resulted in an exciting Tie. The couple of Australian heroes were Dean Jones and Greg Matthews.
Australia batted first and Jones played a superlative innings in the Chennai heat. During the innings he vomited, urinated and had to give intravenous drip once his epic 210 was over. He batted for close to eight and half hours and posted that gem of an innings. There were centuries from the captain Allan Border and vice captain David Boon which propelled Australia to 574/7 declared.
India started their response strongly with Krish Srikkanth reaching a quick fire fifty. However India lost three wickets between the score of 62 and 65 and was in the backfoot. But the middle order stood farm. Mohammad Azharuddin scored 50, Ravi Shastri scored 62 and Kapil Dev scored a gritty 119 and despite five wickets from the off spinner Mathews, India posted 397 and avoided the follow on.
Still Australia were leading by 177 runs and Border wanted to go for a result. They added 170/5 in 49 overs in their second innings and set a target of 348 for India in 87 overs on the last day.
It was important for India to have a good start and Sunil Gavaskar led the way in his 100th consecutive Test match for India. India were 94/1 at the Lunch with Gavaskar standing still. He added 103 with Mohinder Amarnath (51) and took India to Tea with 193/2, needing another 155 runs in 30 overs for an unlikely victory. Gavaskar fell for 90 with the team score on 204. At 251/3 and less than 100 runs target it looked like India had the control but Australia again clawed back. Slow left armer Ray Bright got Azhar and soon Matthews got rid of Kapil, the centurion from the first Innings and India were 253/5. From then on it became a tensed match.
Again at 331/6, India looked strong but Bright got Chetan Sharma, Kiran More and Shivlal Yadav in quick time and now India needed four runs with last man Maninder Singh in. The batsman in the other end was Ravi Shastri and there were just eight balls left in the match.
Maninder survived the last two balls of Bright’s over and then it was Matthews vs Shastri in the last over. Shastri took a two in the second ball and then a single on the next ball to ensure India did not lose the Test match. Maninder, a terrible batsman had to survive the last three balls or get a single from somewhere. He survived one delivery but on the 5th ball of the over he played on backfoot, his bat missed the ball and it was wrapped on the pad. Australians’ loud appeal was upheld by the umpire Dara Dotiwalla and history was made.
