Published: Aug 16, 2015, 03:51 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 16, 2015, 03:51 PM (IST)
Gundappa Vishwanath, the former middle-order batsman named alongside Sunil Gavaskar as India’s finest batsman in the 1970s and 1980s, scored one of his 14 centuries at Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1981 against a strong Australian bowling attack headed by Dennis Lillee. India won that game by 59 runs to draw the series 1-1, as Kapil Dev took five wickets in the final innings to bowl Australia out for 83. Vishwanath’s innings was surrounded by wickets all around, as the next highest to his 114 was 25 scored by wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani at No. 8. The wickets were largely shard around by Lillee and Len Pascoe, but Vishwanath got out to off-spinner Bruce Yardley. READ: Sunil Gavaskar regrets opposing umpire’s decision during India-Australia Melbourne Test in 1981
Australia replied to India’s 237 strongly. Allan Border scored a century, and was supported by captain Greg Chappell and Doug Walters, both of whom scored half-centuries. They were eventually bowled out for 419, and given their domination in the entire series before, it looked as if India will be swept aside for an eventual 2-0 series result.
But that was not to be. India scripted a spirited fightback, led by a 165-run partnership for the first wicket between Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan. The two scored 17 fours between them; Chauhan scored 85 and Gavaskar scored 70. The next batsmen in the batting order, Dilip Vengsarkar, Vishwanath and Sandeep Patil, chipped in with useful contributions as India were bowled out for 324.
Australia, however, collapsed to Dev, Karsan Ghavri and spinner Dilip Doshi, on a troublesome fifth day pitch to hand the game to India, and thereby draw the series 1-1.
