Throwback Thursday | Rahul Dravid leads India to epic victory in Adelaide

It is December 16, 2003, and we're at the beautiful Adelaide Oval, a venue that was historic in every sense.  Rahul Dravid, whose success in the England tour the previous year had written a glorious beginning for Indian cricket, walked out to bat less than half an hour into the final morning. His mighty double century in the first innings had already put India on the threshold of achieving something special. When four runs were needed, Waugh did the most useless thing of all - brought his fielder in, all to be futile as the man from Karnataka, who went on to play a lot of defining innings for the team, was in the zone. 

However, there was a silver lining too. In the seven series preceding that, except for those in New Zealand and South Africa, India had won at least one game in every away series. The most glorious aspect of those wins was the way it was done - not by the sheer force of any one man, like it was Tendulkar in the mid and late 90s, but on every occasion, there was a new hero. If Anil Kumble stepped up in Headingley, Javagal Srinath’s tireless spell under the scorching heat of Port-of-Spain, Zaheer's burst in Kandy or Harbhajan's efforts in Bulawayo showed signs of what was a complete team effort for the Indian team then looked like. 

Brisbane was, in fact, just the trailer and the full movie was yet to be unfolded in Adelaide. Dravid scripted a handsome 233 in the first innings, adding 303 runs with the crisis man of the side VVS Laxman, to help India to 523 in response to Australia’s 556 in the first innings. It was a heroic effort, majorly propelled by two men, but the task was far from done. If Kumble was the star in the first innings, Ajit Agarkar bowled with the heart of a lion in the second dig. With help from Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, the Mumbai pacer demolished the Waugh men with six wickets upfront. Australia were restricted to a mere 196, giving India a target of 230 runs. Easy? We’ll soon find out.

As the day progressed, the Indian No.3 launched assaults, carefully plotted, relentlessly executed. The 233 was scored just a few hours ago and this is totally 230 - can be done, can surely be done. As the thoughts of the Indian fans reached a crescendo, with history beckoning from close quarters, the nervousness of the 90s fans pushed them to the brink of pessimism. But defying all that was the calm man from the Bangalore Cantonment as he added 70 runs with Sachin Tendulkar. 

As if it was planned, Laxman caressed a fine 32-run cameo to uplift the collective morale of the country. With India needing just 9 runs to win, Simon Katich's left-arm spin got the better of the Hyderabadi before Parthiv became the next man to be dismissed. India were on 229. One run was all that needed as Waugh brought in his fielders to close range. That was something with the Aussies, wasn’t it? Rahul Sharad Dravid was on strike, the Indian crowd was all pumped up, Stuart MacGill was ready on his mark to deliver the fourth ball of the over. Agarkar, the new man in, looked at him once before turning his head towards his teammate Dravid and the rivalry changed afterwards.