By Rishi
August 30 2005

A fan reminisces on one of the greatest Test matches of all time: Ganguly's Indians v Waugh's Aussies at Eden Gardens, Kolkata in March 2001. Kolkata.

The very word has become a piece of cricketing jargon to describe the impossible.

You had in Warne, Tendulkar, Gilchrist and McGrath four cricketers that you'd find in just about everyone's all time test XI. Just ask Don Bradman. All the more astonishing then, that other players in fact stole the show at Kolkata.

Arguably the finest team to have played the game were searching for their 17th consecutive win, and one which would have given them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series and that hitherto elusive series win on Indian soil.

Batting first, Australia were on the ropes at 269/8 but amazingly recovered to 445 thanks to two of the most dogged batsmen in world cricket - Waugh and Gillespie.

Having inflicted a crushing defeat at Mumbai, Australia enforced the follow-on at Kolkata and were perhaps one wicket away from an innings victory. Remarkably, India's second innings score of 657 precisely equalled the combined 1st and 2nd innings scores by Australia - 445 and 212. An innings victory of sorts for India you might say.

Though India won, Ganguly's declaration just before lunch on the fifth day setting Australia 384 to win, must rank among the most cautious declarations in test history.

Injury had forced Kumble, arguably India's finest bowler of all time to sit out. His replacement, Harbhajan Singh returned figures of 13/196. Oh, he sneaked a hatrick in too. The best bowling figures ever not to have earned man-of-the-match?

At a time when most of India's success stories were still linked to Tendulkar's bat, he only managed 20 runs in the entire test. Still, he managed to outclass Warne with the ball, arguably the best spinner of all time, by returning match bowling figures of 3/38.

The promotion of Laxman to No.3 midway through the test match. Has there been a single bigger master-stroke in the history of the game? His 281 was the highest test score achieved by an Indian and the highest score registered at Eden Gardens. He combined with Dravid to build a partnership of 376 ensuring Australia remained wicketless for the entire 4th day.

India's win over Australia at Kolkata precipitated headlines on the other side of the world. The Daily Telegraph called it the greatest test of all time. It was front page news in Britain's broadsheets. Cricket barely made the back pages in these parts.

India won the series in a humdinger of a game in the next next at Chennai. Mind you it was the kind of test match we get to see every once in a while - we've seen a few in the current Ashes 2005 series.

Kolkata was truly a one-off.