New Delhi, India

On this day in 2001, India pulled off a historic win in the second and penultimate Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy versus Australia on home soil. After losing the series opener convincingly, the then Sourav Ganguly-led Indian team were on the mat after being asked to follow-on. Dismissing Steve Waugh's Australia for 445, India only managed 171 and were 232-4 in their second essay.

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VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180) joined forces for the fifth-wicket stand, which added a mammoth 376 runs as the two's daddy hundreds propelled India to set a daunting 384-run target for the visitors. Waugh & Co., who were riding high on their 16-match unbeaten streak, fell flat and bundled out for 212 on the final day as Harbhajan Singh's match figures of 13 for 196 took India to a stunning 171-run win.

On Wednesday (March 15), India's former player Hemang Badani shared some interesting and unheard tales from the iconic Kolkata Test. Badani wrote on Twitter, "Not many know that at the end of day 3 we had packed our suitcases, they were to be taken straight to the airport and the team were to go straight to the airport from the ground. And then these two batted like magicians without losing a wicket the entire day."

"When we got back to the hotel, we didn’t have our suitcases and were stuck with our match gear and tracks until about 9 pm or so. Lot of us ate dinner at the hotel restaurant in our whites," he added.

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At the end of Day 3, India were reeling at 254-4 in their second essay before they eventually declared at 657/7 courtesy of Laxman-Dravid's brilliance.

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An uncapped Badani sledged legend Waugh!

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Badani further revealed, in reply to another tweet, "And here is another story. On day five our keeper Mongia got injured and yours truly was on as a substitute fielder and Sourav knowing that I was one of the few who could speak English well asked me to make it tough for the Aussie’s .."

"I hadn’t even made my test debut then and imagine I was going hard at their Skip who had played over a 100 test games and I was lucky enough to be a part of his dismissal. Haven’t been a part of any better cricket match than this.Fabulous cricket and great memories for me," he added.

Ganguly-led India not only levelled the three-match series in Kolkata, but they also went ahead to win the series decider in Chennai by two wickets. Hence, India emerged on top of a daunting Australian unit to win the series 2-1 after trailing 0-1. The Kolkata Test changed Indian cricket completely and is vividly remembered to date as one of the best red-ball games ever.

Currently, hosts Rohit Sharma-led India -- under Dravid's coaching -- defeated Australia 2-1 in the 2022/23 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and both sides will meet in this year's ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval, London in early June.