Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman, that is not the name with which we recognise Laxman. For us, a full form of V.V.S. is Very Very Special. For the people coming from Hyderabad, their biggest fear is that they find it difficult to memorize and pronounce their name correctly. Pusarla Venkata Sindhu (P.V. Sindhu), the Olympic silver medallist might face the same fear in the upcoming years. As of now, she is happy being recognised as Sindhu or P.V. Sindhu.
Coming back to cricket, on the occasion of V.V.S. Laxman’s birthday today, the first thing which comes in our mind is his dazzling innings of 281 at Kolkata in the year 2001. He played a perfect role of what we know and have read about the man Laxman in our sacred book, ‘Ramayan’. Taking the guard to rescue the team when, in difficulty, to step above the ranks against the odds to set a class apart carving a niche for self.
It was the month of February, the shortest month in the calendar when Australia travelled to India to play Test series comprising three Test matches followed by five ODIs.
The first Test match which started on 27 February, was just a three-day affair as the world champions of that time, Australia, led by the fierce Steve Waugh deflated India and won the game by almost a margin of an innings. They had to chase a mere total of 47 in the fourth innings which they did without any casualty.
Being the three-match series, pressure was on Indian team to pull up the socks for the second game to keep the series alive. Without any surprise, the home team bowed down to the visitors in the second game as well scoring just 171 runs in reply to Australia’s 445. However, Harbhajan’s hat-trick in the first innings was something to cheer about for Indians. His wicket tally column read number ‘7’ but that was of no use unless efforts were made by batting unit as well.
Still, 274 runs behind Australia’s total, India were asked to follow-on, which meant that first, they had to clear the debt of 274 runs before even thinking to go for some profit.
Getting a steady start from the ‘S’ duo, Shiv Sunder Das and Sadagoppan Ramesh, the Indian team lost their first wicket on a score of 52. Still, 222 runs behind Australia, the nelson number also regarded as an unlucky number, the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly made a rejig in the batting order sending V.V.S. Laxman at number 3 in hope of a miracle or maybe just to prevent the best for the last.
The number of wickets in the respective column continued to increase till Laxman, the silent killer throughout his career got the support of Sourav Ganguly who was his partner for next 117 runs. Dada also departed when and on a score of 48 showing his back leaving Laxman behind.
Rahul Dravid, the succeeding batsman and V.V.S. Laxman survived the Aussie attack until the end of the day with Laxman making best of the efforts all day round. At stumps, India were still 20 runs behind. Meanwhile, Laxman accomplished a proud record completing 1000 runs in Test cricket.
Well, this was only one of the reasons to smile as no one had any idea about the power of Laxman which they experienced the very next day. Even Laxman would not have thought about what will do the next day.
The following day completely belonged to Indians as both Laxman and Dravid batted whole day forcing Aussies to toil on day four. The woeful fourth day ended for Australia with India posting 335 runs on the board sans wicket or even a half wicket. During the course, Laxman surpassed the record of highest score by an Indian scoring 275* leaving behind the great Sunil Gavaskar who had scored 236* at the Chennai 17 years earlier.
India was now on the driving seat with Dravid and Laxman rowing the team’s boat whole day as safe as the safest helmsman present on the shore. Finally, Australians had a reason to smile when they got the wicket of Laxman on the final day. Wickets of Nayan Mongia and Rahul Dravid soon followed before India decided to set a target of 384 for Aussies.
Indians now had a stiff uphill task to win this game as the Australians were pretty sure that they would draw the game. Chasing 384 runs on the final day is something impossible; never in the history of the game, we have seen this. Once, Mumbai tried to chase 355 runs but in hurry to pull off something out of the blue, they ended up losing the game by a margin of just 2 runs.
Within a matter of few overs, Aussie crossed 50-run mark before losing the first wicket on a score of 74. Langer followed him when scorecard read a tally of 106. A draw was on the cards but then came the moments which popularised Harbhajan Singh as the name of ‘Turbanator’. Bhajji, as we call him, toppled the Aussie batting line up with 6 wickets in no time. Once Australia was safely sitting on a total of 106/2 but then a 20 years old slim-trim guy wearing a turban ran over Australian batting line-up and made them dance to his tunes of famous Punjabi music ‘Bhangra’ sending back every batsman from where they came i.e. pavilion.
Indian team won the game which left many speechless. For Australians it was like Indian team has been able to bring back the time which has passed, they had pulled off one of the biggest upsets for Australia and one of the biggest surprises for India after World Cup win in the year 1983.
That day, India got two new heroes in the name of V.V.S. Laxman and Harbhajan Singh. Till now, the innings from Laxman is regarded as one of the best innings in the history of cricket; to add cherry on the cake, in the month of January this year his innings was awarded as the best innings ever played in past 50 years of Test cricket.
Laxman and the number 281 became a partner of each other and whenever we hear or pronounce the number 281, the first name which comes on our tongue is V.V.S. Laxman, Very Very special indeed.
Laxman ended his career in the year 2012 with a total of 134 Test matches under his belt scoring 8781 runs at an average of 45.97. His best score remains this number i.e. 281 which he can rejoice whole his life. Till now, that Test match is the match which remains fresh in our memories and is one of the greatest matches ever played by India
If conducted a poll, this match might receive the third highest polls after 2011 and 1983 World Cup finals.
https://youtu.be/XpvyhmImgAY