Thirteen for 196

India followed on 274 behind at Eden Gardens in March 2001, declared at 657 for seven, and won by 171 runs. The card’s player of the match is VVS Laxman, for 59 and 281. Its bowling tables give Harbhajan Singh seven for 123 and six for 73, thirteen wickets of the twenty, and a hat-trick noted by the over.

The first evening

Australia chose to bat and were 252 for four in the 72nd over, Steve Waugh in, Ricky Ponting just arrived. The card’s note reads: Harbhajan Singh claimed a hat-trick, taking the successive wickets of Ponting, Gilchrist and Warne. Ponting leg before for 6, Adam Gilchrist leg before first ball, Shane Warne caught Ramesh first ball. 252 for seven.

Waugh made 110 and Jason Gillespie 46, the ninth wicket put on 133, and Australia reached 445. Harbhajan bowled 37.5 overs for seven for 123. India were 128 for eight at the close of the second day and all out for 171 on the third morning, Glenn McGrath four for 18 in 14 overs, and Waugh asked them to bat again.

Full scorecard: India v Australia, 2nd Test, Eden Gardens, Kolkata, 11–15 March 2001 →

The fourth day

India closed the third day on 254 for four, Laxman 109 not out, Rahul Dravid 7. They closed the fourth on 589 for four, Laxman 275, Dravid 155. The whole of a day’s play, 90 overs, 335 runs, without a wicket. The card notes Laxman passing Sunil Gavaskar’s 236 not out on the way, at 237, as the highest score by an Indian in Tests.

Laxman was out on the fifth morning for 281, from 452 balls and 631 minutes, with 44 fours, caught Ponting bowled McGrath at 608. The fifth wicket had put on 376. Dravid was run out for 180 at 629, and Sourav Ganguly declared at 657 for seven, with Australia needing 384 from what was left of the day.

The last session

Australia were 24 without loss at lunch and 161 for three at tea, Matthew Hayden 59 not out, Waugh 23, with 43 overs gone. Then: Waugh caught by a substitute off Harbhajan at 166. Ponting caught Das off Harbhajan at 166, for 0. Gilchrist leg before to Sachin Tendulkar first ball, 167. Hayden leg before to Tendulkar for 67, 173. Warne leg before to Tendulkar, 174. Five wickets for eight runs.

Gillespie caught Das off Harbhajan at 191. McGrath leg before to Harbhajan at 212, and the match was over with 68.3 overs bowled. Harbhajan: 30.3 overs, eight maidens, six for 73. Tendulkar: eleven overs, three for 31, all three leg before.

The other guy

Laxman’s 281 is the innings, and it has the award. Dravid’s 180 is the innings next to it, made from 353 balls over the same day, and is remembered as the other half of a partnership. Harbhajan’s thirteen wickets are the reason there was a result at all, and the card carries them as two lines of figures and one note.

The umpires were Peter Willey and Shyam Bansal, and it is Test number 1535. He was the first Indian to take a Test hat-trick, and by the end of the series had taken 32 wickets in three Tests, more than ten times the next Indian. The card for Kolkata shows the middle third of that.

What the card holds

A follow-on enforced with a lead of 274 and lost, the third time in Test history after Sydney 1894 and Headingley 1981. A day without a wicket. A stand of 376. Five penalty runs in Australia’s second innings, which the card lists under extras without explanation. A hat-trick in the 72nd over of the match. And thirteen for 196, on the card twice, under a name that is not the one on the award.

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No. 18 in The Other Guy, a series of 24.

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