A tie that knotted two cities together

Australia faced an equally strong West Indies at Brisbane in the first Test of the 1960 series, and the match witnessed some outstanding individual performances. There were hundreds by Sir Gary Sobers, the premier all-rounder in the history of the game, and Norman O’Neill, the determined Australian middle-order batsman. Left-arm pacer Alan Davidson became the first man to complete the rare double of 100 runs and 10 wickets in a Test match, and the tie was only a fair result.

Australia needed 239 runs to win the match, but West Indian pace great Wes Hall came up with a five-wicket burst, helping the visitors to stop Australia precisely at 238 with a ball to spare.

History repeated itself 26 years later at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai when India took on Australia in the first Test of the 1986 series. Australia powered to a mammoth 574 riding on Dean Jones’ double hundred, and hundreds by Allan Border and David Boon.
The first innings set the tone for Australia’s dominance for most part of the Test, and the visitors set India a formidable target of 348. Fifties by Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinnder Amarnath, and a blistering 48 by Ravi Shastri seemed to have taken India to a historic win. But offie Greg Matthews trapped Maninder Singh leg before as Indian innings ended at 347, with a ball to spare.

There have been countless exciting Tests, but Brisbane and Chennai have produced heart-stoppers like no other.