![Highest successful run-chases in Eden Gardens [Source: @SpotOnEntertai1/x]](https://onecricketnews.akamaized.net/parth-editor/oc-dashboard/news-images-prod/1763284331938_eden_gardens.jpg?type=hq)
Highest successful run-chases in Eden Gardens [Source: @SpotOnEntertai1/x]
Eden Gardens, with its towering stands and charged Kolkata atmosphere, has witnessed some of Test cricket’s most iconic passages of play. Yet for all its grandeur, the venue has long been a graveyard for fourth-innings pursuits, turning even modest targets into nerve-shredding trials. In 44 Tests at the historic ground, only five teams have ever managed to script successful run-chases.
After Team India, led by Shubman Gill, failed to chase down 124 against South Africa on November 15, here is a look at five of the highest successful run-chases pulled off at the venue in Test cricket.
5. England 16-0 vs India, 1977
England chased down 16 in just 3.4 overs with all 10 wickets intact during the second Test of their five-match tour of India back in January 1977. Openers Dennis Amiss and Graham Barlow scored seven runs each in the innings after bowlers Derek Underwood and Chris Old decimated hosts India. However, it was Bob Willis who set the early tone for England with a five-wicket haul on Day 1 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
With the bat, captain Tony Greig led his team from the front with a regal 103, the only century of the match as the cricketer spent over seven hours at the crease.
4. England 41-3 vs India, 2012
Just a week after stunning India at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, England pulled off another all-round treat, albeit this time in Eden Gardens back in December 2012 in the third Test of their four-match tour. Chasing 41 for a win on Day 5 after collective bowling brilliance from James Anderson, Steven Finn and spinners Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann as well as a 190-run batting poetry from captain Alastair Cook; England chased the target in 12.1 overs at an expense of three top-order wickets.
Ian Bell scored 28 of them at run-a-ball, which including the winning hit as England took a 2-1 lead in the series.
3. Australia 42-0 vs India, 1969
Without breaking a sweat, the Australian team of late-1969 chased down their 39-run target against India at the Eden Gardens with all 10 wickets intact. Captain Bill Lawry and his opening partner Keith Stackpole notched up the winning runs together in just five overs on Day 4 to take Australia 2-1 up in the five-match Test series.
Fast bowler Graham McKenzie picked up six wickets in the first Indian innings, and his pace mates Eric Freeman and Alan Connolly scalped three wickets each in the second innings to engineer Australia’s commanding win. Ian Chappell also scored 99 to headline Australia’s charge with the bat to render Bishan Singh Bedi’s seven-wicket haul in vain.
2. India 82-2 vs England, 1993
Under the leadership of Mohammad Azharuddin, Team India steamrolled England by eight wickets at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in the first Test of the three-match series back in January 1993. Left to chase 79 for a win on Day 5 after six-wicket match hauls from Anil Kumble and Venkatapathy Raju, India lost both openers before childhood friends Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli steered their team to a comprehensive win in 29.2 overs.
Captain Azharuddin, for his 182-run epic in just 197 balls in the first innings, won the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
1. India 120-2 vs South Africa, 2004
After a high-scoring draw in Kanpur, a Sourav Ganguly-led Team India blanked South Africa in the series-deciding second Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata back in December 2004. Legendary off-spinner Harbhajan Singh picked up nine wickets in the match, including seven in the second South African innings to claim sensational figures of 7-87, thus setting up a 117-run target for the hosts.
Rahul Dravid top-scored for India with a vintage 47*, as he shared a 60-run unbroken partnership with fellow batting icon Sachin Tendulkar (32*) as their team reached 120-2 in 39.4 overs to seal the two-match series 1-0.
