Australia declared their first innings at 574 for 7 during the first hour of third day. At that point in time, it appeared that Indians will also pile up runs against a depleted Australian attack and the test will ultimately end in a dull draw.

However Indian batting sans Vengsarkar struggled. The unexpected damage came from Australian off-break bowler Greg Matthews.

First of all, Indians were supposedly very strong against the spin attack. Moreover Matthews had a very mediocre record, until commencement of this test.

Matthews was an interesting personality. He used to bowl wearing a baseball cap and in hot and humid Madras weather, he played the match with a sweater on.

Though Srikkanth, Shastri and Azhar scored half centuries it was not good enough to counter the mammoth Australian total.

By the time the third day’s play got over, Indians were still more than hundred runs away from saving the follow-on with just three wickets in hand. Kapil was on the crease and he had a colossal task of taking India out of this muddle with three tail-enders.

Some people keep their best reserved for the special occasions and Kapil Dev was one such bloke. If second day of match belonged to Dean Jones, it was Kapil’s day on the fourth.

As soon as play commenced on day four, Kapil made his intentions clear. He started hammering Australian bowlers to each part of the ground.

Kapil smashed century and saved follow-on for India. India finished first innings at 397 — a deficit of 177. At the end of fourth day’s play, Australia was 170 for 5 and this is when Border spiced up the whole scenario.

In a display of extreme aggression, Border declared the innings and lured Kapil and India to score 348 runs on the fifth and last day to bag the match.