In order to win the World Test Championship crown, India have been set a target of 444 runs – a score that has never been chased down in the fourth innings of a Test match. The Aussies had the perfect start to the game as they scored 469 in the first innings, while the Indian team perished for only 296.
India showed better control in the second innings and Australia declared the score at 270/8. India scored 164/3 by the end of Day 4 and will now have to chase the remaining 280 runs to win the second World Test Championship.
Though India will need to script history if they are to win this game, but the men in blue have chased mammoth totals, albeit not as huge, on three previous occasions.
Let us take you down the memory lane, as we relive those epic chases ahead of a crucial Day 5.
1. West Indies vs India (April 1976)
India had chased a huge target of 403 runs in their contest against West Indies, during the third Test of their 1976 tour. Chasing West Indies' 359 runs, India could only score 228 runs in the first innings.
The hosts then declared the score at 271/6 in the second innings, adding on to the lead. The target for India rose to 403 runs, which the team successfully chased down, showing grit and determination.
Two Indian batters, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, scored centuries in the fourth innings.. While Gavaskar scored 102 runs, Viswanath was unbeaten at 112 runs, thus marking India’s historical victory.
2. India vs England (December, 2008)
India secured a victory in the first Test of England's tour to India in 2008 at Chennai, by emphatically chasing down 387 runs in the fourth innings. Thanks to a century by Andrew Strauss, England scored 316 runs in the first innings, but the Indian team could manage to put only 241 runs on the board. Strauss madescored a century again in the second innings, as his team declared at 311/9.
Team India had to chase 387 runs, but Sachin Tendulkar came up trumps by scoring a century and remaining unbeaten on 103, while three other Indian batters in Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh scored half-centuries.
3. Australia vs India (January, 2021)
During the last Test of what was a roller-coaster 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy for India, the men in blue successfully chased 328 runs in the fourth innings to not only win the match, but the series as well. Marnus Labuschagne’s century in the first innings catapulted Australia’s total to 369 runs in the first innings. A stunning partnership between India’s tail-enders, Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur, then helped India put a respectable total of 336 on the board in the first innings.
The Indian bowling unit, dominated by Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur who took a fifer and four wickets respectively, managed to bowl out the Australian team at 294.
Having 328 runs to chase, the Indian team played extraordinarily well. The young guns, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant were the heroes of the match. Shubman fell short by 9 runs to complete his century and had to depart after scoring 91. Rishabh Pant stood his ground at a time when India needed him the most. Not losing his wicket till the end, the dashing wicketkeeper-batter scored 89* to help his team breach the dreaded Gabba fortress.
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