Laxman's 281 and Dravid's 180 Turned a 274-Run Deficit at Eden Gardens Into a 171-Run India Win Over Australia on 15 March 2001, Ending a Run of 16 Test Victories

India beat Australia by 171 runs at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 15 March 2001, after being made to follow on 274 runs behind. VVS Laxman made 281, which was the highest Test score by an Indian at the time, and Rahul Dravid made 180. The two added 376 for the fifth wicket, and India declared on 657 for 7.

The win ended a run of 16 consecutive Test victories by Australia, then a record, according to the Tribune’s report from the ground. Cricinfo’s match report says India became the third side to win a Test after following on. Australia had been the beaten team on the other two occasions, at Sydney in 1894 and at Headingley in 1981.

A ten-wicket defeat in Mumbai, then a toss in Kolkata

The three-Test series began at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai from 27 February to 1 March 2001. Australia won by 10 wickets, according to the Cricinfo scorecard. Adam Gilchrist made 122 off 162 balls and Matthew Hayden 119, while India made 176 and 219. Wisden’s account of Laxman’s innings calls that result Australia’s record 16th consecutive Test win.

At Eden Gardens, in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, Australia won the toss and batted. The openers Michael Slater and Hayden put on 103, and at one stage on the first day the Tribune’s PTI report has Australia at 193 for 1, Hayden on his way to 97.

Harbhajan Singh’s hat-trick in front of 70,000

The match turned after tea. Harbhajan Singh, a 20-year-old off-spinner from Jalandhar, took all five of his wickets of the day in that session, in front of what PTI put at 70,000 people.

In his 16th over he had Ricky Ponting lbw, then Adam Gilchrist lbw, then Shane Warne, caught at short leg by Sadagoppan Ramesh. Umpire S. K. Bansal sent the catch to the third umpire before the decision came. It was the first Test hat-trick by an Indian, 69 years after India played its first Test, in 1932, PTI noted.

Australia went from 252 for 4 to 252 for 7 in those three balls and closed the first day at 291 for 8. Harbhajan’s figures for the day were 5 for 66. “I only thought I had to bowl well as we have no option but to win the match,” he told reporters that evening. He dedicated the feat to his father, who had died six months earlier.

Waugh and Gillespie, then India at 128 for 8

On the second day, 12 March, Steve Waugh made 110 and Jason Gillespie 46 from 147 balls. They added 133 for the ninth wicket, taking Australia to 402, and the innings ended at 445. Harbhajan finished with 7 for 123.

India’s reply was short. By stumps on the second evening they were 128 for 8, with Laxman on 26 not out. Next morning they were all out for 171 in 58.1 overs. Glenn McGrath took 4 for 18 from 14 overs, eight of them maidens, and Laxman top-scored with 59 off 83 balls. Australia led by 274, which is 445 minus 171. A cricket.com.au analysis gives the lead as 273, but the totals on the scorecard give 274.

The follow-on, and whether Waugh was right

Steve Waugh, the Australian captain, made India bat again on 13 March. Andrew Ramsey, writing for cricket.com.au, reports that Waugh wanted to keep India “pinned down” after their loss in Mumbai, and that the decision came after a short discussion with the coach, John Buchanan, and the team.

Ramsey counts that Waugh enforced the follow-on in all seven later Tests in which the chance came. Shane Warne takes a different view. He told Wisden in 2020: “I thought he got that wrong.” Warne’s view was that Australia should have batted again instead. Wisden’s piece does not carry a reply from Waugh on that point. Buchanan has argued, in Ramsey’s account, that India’s only route back into the match was to follow on, post a big total and put Australia under pressure.

254 for 4 at the close of the third day

India’s second innings began badly, and it began with a change of order. Laxman, promoted to No. 3 after his 59, came in at 97 for 2, and Dravid, moved down to No. 6, did not bat until 232 for 4. The Tribune’s day-four report records Laxman’s promotion. Dravid, asked about his own move, said it was a team decision and that the team’s cause came first, in the quotes Cricinfo compiled on 15 March 2001.

Shiv Sundar Das made 39 and was out hit wicket, Ramesh made 30, Sachin Tendulkar 10 and Sourav Ganguly 48. Ganguly went at 232 for 4, with India still 42 behind. At the close on 13 March, India were 254 for 4, 20 behind, Laxman unbeaten on 109 with 19 fours and Dravid on 7.

A fourth day without a wicket

On 14 March, Australia took no wicket for the whole day. Laxman and Dravid scored 335 runs between 254 for 4 and 589 for 4, which the Tribune’s PTI report puts at 165 overs for the innings. Steve Waugh used eight bowlers, PTI says, and none of them broke the partnership.

By the close Laxman was 275 not out from 438 balls in 609 minutes, with 44 fours. Dravid was 155 not out from 318 balls. Laxman passed Sunil Gavaskar’s 236 not out, made at Madras against the West Indies in 1983 to 1984, as the highest Test score by an Indian. He also passed Rohan Kanhai’s 256, made at Eden Gardens in 1958 to 1959, as the highest Test score on Indian soil. The 357 they had added by the close was the highest fifth-wicket stand for India, ahead of the 214 by Ravi Shastri and Mohammad Azharuddin against England at the same ground in 1984 to 1985. PTI listed only one bigger stand in India, the 413 for the first wicket by Pankaj Roy and Vinod Mankad against New Zealand at Chennai in 1955 to 1956.

Laxman told the Times of India years later, in an interview Wisden reported in 2020, that he was battling a back spasm while Dravid was cramping. He said they motivated each other, “one ball, one over, one hour”, and that both were on drips when play ended. Dravid thanked the crowd after play: “I must appreciate the Eden crowd,” he said. Ganguly wrote in his Times of India column that he sat bare-chested with a towel round him for almost the entire day, so that neither batsman would get out. Buchanan, the Australian coach, said of Laxman’s innings: “A great knock. I think, one of the best that I have seen.”

The last day: 657 for 7 declared, then 10 wickets

Laxman added six runs on 15 March and was caught by Ponting at gully off McGrath for 281, 19 short of 300. Dravid was run out for 180, from 353 balls with 20 fours. The fifth-wicket stand was 376 in 104 overs. Ganguly declared one hour into the morning session at 657 for 7, in 178 overs. The lead was 383, and Australia needed 384 to win in 75 overs.

Hayden made 67 and Slater 43, and Australia were 166 for 3 when Steve Waugh went, caught at backward short leg by the substitute Hemang Badani off Harbhajan. After tea, Harbhajan and Tendulkar took wickets in quick succession. Cricinfo’s report counts five Australian wickets for eight runs in 32 balls, from 166 for 3 to 174 for 8. Gilchrist, who had played in all 16 of Australia’s winning Tests, was lbw to Tendulkar for 0 after facing one ball. He had faced one ball in the first innings as well.

Tendulkar took 3 for 31 from 11 overs, trapping Hayden, Gilchrist and Warne. Harbhajan took 6 for 73, which gave him 13 for 196 in the match. McGrath, lbw to Harbhajan, was the last man out. Australia were all out for 212 in 68.3 overs.

What came after

Ganguly said at the post-match press conference that the victory was “a good answer to everybody who had criticised the team after the Mumbai defeat”. The Indian board announced cash awards of 3 lakh rupees for Laxman, 1.5 lakh for Dravid and 2 lakh for Harbhajan, its president A. C. Muthiah said, as reported by PTI.

The third Test followed at Chepauk in Chennai from 18 to 22 March. India won by two wickets, chasing 155, and took the series 2-1. Harbhajan took 32 wickets in the series, Cricket Australia reports.

Laxman said in 2013 that the Kolkata win “changed our mindset as a team”, in an interview with Wisden India that Wisden quotes. Wisden placed his 281 first in its list of the best Test innings of the 2000s. India’s first Test triple century came in March 2004, from Virender Sehwag against Pakistan, the ICC records. Indian cricket’s 1983 World Cup win over West Indies at Lord’s, with its own scorecards, is covered in our article on Kapil Dev’s 175 and the final. In a vote run by ESPN in June 2025, readers chose the Kolkata Test of 2001 as the greatest Test of the 21st century so far.