Former Indian cricketer VVS Laxman recently went nostalgic and talked about his iconic 303-run partnership with Rahul Dravid in the 2003 Adelaide Test. Both Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were the heroes of team India’s win at Eden Gardens in the year 2001 as the duo were involved in another triple-century partnership after the dismissal of skipper Sourav Ganguly.
While Rahul Dravid scored a double century, on the other hand, VVS Laxman amassed 148 runs as team India went on to clinch the Test match by 4 wickets. However, the knock didn’t come easily. Recently, VVS Laxman made a big revelation that Rahul Dravid was upset after being the reason behind Sourav Ganguly’s run-out.
During an interaction on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected, VVS revealed that he had to tell Sourav Dravid to forget about Sourav Ganguly’s run-out. He said:
“When I joined Rahul when Sourav unfortunately got run out, the reaction of Rahul was he was still amazed, he was dazed when I walked in because of the fashion in which Sourav got run out. All I had to tell to Rahul was forget about what has happened and let us think about what we are going to do. Because he was really upset the way Sourav got run out.”
Laxman also recalled how the Australians almost won the game when the pair got stuck in the middle. After opting to bat first, Aussies managed to post a target score of 556 runs on the scoreboard. In response, chasing the target of 556 runs team India found themselves in a tricky situation after Sourav Ganguly’s dismissal.
However, the heroics of Laxman and Dravid saved the day for India as they together stitched a 303-run stand and amassed 523 runs in the first innings. In the second innings, Dravid once again starred with the bat as he scored an unbeaten 72* as team India scripted a four-wicket win at Adelaide. Talking about his partnership with Dravid, VVS said:
“We had a good partnership by the end of the day and we tried to play our natural game. The best part about that partnership was even though there was scoreboard pressure, even though we were under a lot of stress and pressure but not once did we go into a shell.”
He added:
“Whenever the opportunity arose to hit a boundary, we took that opportunity. So, the run rate was also very healthy and suddenly the pressure slowly shifted on the Australians. And when I spoke to some of them after the Test match, when we had a partnership of 100 or 150, slowly they were also thinking if it will be a repeat of Eden. We had a 300-run partnership and Rahul batted beautifully to get to his double-hundred.”
