Former Australian captain and one of the most celebrated analysts Ian Chappell has picked his two all-time favourite innings against high-quality spin. He rated VVS Laxman’s 281 in the Kolkata Test against Australia, in 2001, as one of his favourites.
Laxman’s 281 was the then highest individual score by an Indian in Tests. The stylish Hyderabadi batsman was on the verge of facing the axe from the selectors when he played that knock against the super-strong Australian side at the iconic Eden Gardens. Laxman’s innings is regarded as one of the greatest knocks in Test history. The knock has consistently featured in top five greatest Test knocks in the format’s 143-year-old history.
Rahul Dravid played a great supporting act with a defiant 180 and shared a 376-run stand to engineer one of the greatest sporting comebacks. Not only India levelled the series they also halted Australia’s 16-consecutive-win record. India won the next Test to seal the series.
“The absence of any cricket (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) gives me an opportunity to reflect on an aspect of the game I enjoy: watching a batsman utilise good footwork to combat top-class spin bowling. Two innings stand out: one played by India’s VVS Laxman, the other by Doug Walters of Australia,” Chappell wrote in a column for ESPNcricinfo.
Laxman had the task of combating Shane Warne on a track that spun. Chappell was simply in awe of Laxman’s wristy batting and the way he managed to toy with the likes of Warne, regarded as the greatest spinner in the game.
“Laxman’s incredible 281 at Calcutta in 2001 is the best I’ve seen against top-class leg-spin. At the conclusion of that exhilarating series I asked Shane Warne how he thought he bowled.
“I don’t think I bowled that badly,” he replied. “You didn’t,” I responded.
“If Laxman comes three paces out of his crease and hits an unbelievable on-drive against the spin and you then flight the next delivery a little higher and shorter to invite another drive and instead he quickly goes onto the back foot and pulls it, that’s not bad bowling. That’s good footwork.
“Laxman regularly did this during his 452-ball stay, in which he hit 44 boundaries. Therein lies a clue to Laxman’s success: he consistently hit the ball along the ground,” wrote Chappell, praising the temperament of Laxman.
DOUG WALTERS
Chappell called fellow Australian Doug Walters as the best player against spin he had seen.
“Walters scored a Test century in a session three times. There are no complete records regarding this feat, but I suspect only Sir Donald Bradman did it more often.
“Walters was the best player of off-spin bowling I have seen; he didn’t just survive against the very best, he occasionally battered them into submission. He scored a sublime hundred on a Madras minefield in 1969, facing the off-spin wizardry of Erapalli Prasanna, clubbing 14 fours and two sixes in the process,” said Chappell.