India Vs Australia, Kolkata Test 2001: How Well Do You Remember That Epic Eden Gardens Day 4 Play

With the turn of the century, Indian cricket experienced a new dawn, marked by a young team full of promising players under the talismanic leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

They did some inspiring things on the cricketing field, which brought back the broken faith of Indian, who were hurt by the match fixing saga of the late 90s fans into the game.

One of the turning events of the Indian cricketing history, which made the players and the fans believe that they could win the match from any situation against any team, is the Kolkata Test in 2001, where India won against mighty Australia after being enforced a follow-on.

Only four teams in history have managed to win a Test match after being forced to follow on—just four victories out of nearly 2,500 Tests played over 149 years and it was one such occasion that changed Indian cricket.

This day (March 14) 25 years ago, marks Day 4 of the historic India-Australia Kolkata Test, where India turned the game on its head on the back of a historic 376-run partnership between VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180), where the duo batted for an entire Day without getting a wicket and accumulated 335 runs during the day.

It wasn't just this historic partnership that made it a tale to remember; in fact, what preceded the partnership made it even more special. Australia were on a 16-Test winning streak, and before the India series, Australian skipper Steve Waugh termed it as a final frontier for their team.

They began their campaign strongly and registered a 10-wicket victory in the first Test in Mumbai to lead the three-match series 1-0. They maintained the momentum in the 2nd Test as well, and after posting a huge 445 runs in the first innings of the Kolkata Test, had bowled India out at 171 in the first innings and got them reeling 232/4 in the second innings after enforcing a follow-on.

What looked like an imminent defeat at one stage was turned into folklore by two Indian legends - VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid, who were promising youngsters at that stage.

What made the innings iconic was the physical endurance both batters showed in the humid Kolkata heat. While Dravid came into the match with a viral fever, Laxman was grappling with back spasms during the partnership, but both batters displayed remarkable mental resolve to fight their physical battles and came out on top with flying colours.

When the 376-run stand was finally broken by the Aussies on Day 5, India were already on 608/5. The hosts declared their innings at 657/7, setting an almost impossible 383 runs target for the visitors in just over 2 sessions on a final day Indian wicket.

Though India had a stronghold on the match, they still needed to bundle a strong Australian team in just over 2 sessions, but the belief that the iconic partnership had instilled overcame the aura of that Australian team.

India weaved a spin web on a Day 5 wicket with a young Harbhajan Singh leading the charge with a hat-trick. He was well complemented by Sachin Tendulkar, who got three big wickets (Gilchrist, Hayden and Warner) in consecutive overs to sway the match in India's favour.