50-11 greatest Border-Gavaskar Trophy moments: Controversies and key moments that shaped Australia and India’s Test rivalry
It has turned into one of the fiercest rivalries in world sport – and since the advent of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australia’s showdowns with India have produced some of cricket’s greatest moments.
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It has turned into one of the fiercest rivalries in world sport – and since the advent of the Border-Gavaskar Series in 1996, Australia’s showdowns with India have produced some of the greatest moments in cricket.
For nearly three decades the two nations have cemented themselves as the powerhouses in world cricket.
In these battles, no batter has scored more runs than India’s Sachin Tendulkar, and no bowler taking more wickets than Australia’s Nathan Lyon.
But numbers alone barely begin to tell the story. This is a showdown build on controversy, occasional pettiness, a large dose of superstars and, above all, stupendous cricket.
From the inaugural Test in Delhi, where Steve Waugh’s unbeaten 67 in trying conditions – labelled the finest of his career by the man himself – wasn’t quite enough to secure victory, these have been battles which elevate its competitors to greater heights.
Condensing this history into its most memorable innings, incidents and iconic moments was no easy feat.
News Corp’s cricket writers have distilled 28 years into a Top 50, starting with part one where we reveal No.50-No.11, with the Top 10 revealed on Wednesday.
50. THE GREATEST 67 OF WAUGH’S CAREER, DELHI, 1996
Waugh made 32 hundreds in his career, yet he rates his stoic 67 not out off 221 balls in Delhi as one of his greatest Test innings. This was a classic example of Waugh’s extraordinary mental fortitude and discipline, where he restricted him to only playing a limited number of shots in attempt to stave off an inevitable Indian victory.
49. MCGRATH’S EDEN GARDENS BLITZ, 2001
Of course the match became famous for the history-making rearguard heroics of VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180), but the reason India were in such a hole was because of the stunning up-front bowling performance of McGrath. His figures of 4-18, including eight maidens from 14 overs was mind-blowing. McGrath refused to give an inch as India were bowled out for 171 at Eden Gardens, giving Australia a monster first-innings lead. The rest is history.
48. KUMBLE’S GREAT EIGHT, 2004
In a match best remembered for Sachin Tendulkar’s double ton and Steve Waugh’s Test farewell, Indian leggie Kumble powered through almost 47 first innings overs to take 8-141 before adding 4-138 in the second innings as the tourists fell just short of an outright series win. This wasn’t just a case of a spinner cleaning up the tail either. Among Kumble’s victims for the match were Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Adam Gilchrist, and in his final Test innings: Waugh.
47. AGARKAR’S STAR TURN, 2003
In what was a high-scoring Test and series, Indian quick Agit Agarkar’s performance with the ball on day four at Adelaide Oval was arguably the most telling of the summer. Hardly the biggest name in the history of the India-Australia rivalry, the paceman charged through a much-vaunted batting lineup to take 6-41 — including the red-hot Ricky Ponting for a duck — and pave the way for Rahul Dravid to anchor the successful Indian run chase the following day.
46. PONTING’S OVER-RATE DRAMA, 2008
With Australia needing a win in Nagpur to level the series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Ricky Ponting came under fire after using part-timers including Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke ahead of some of his frontline bowlers as the Aussies pressed for victory. The reason behind the bizarre tactical move? Ponting was at risk of being suspended for the following Test against New Zealand because of over rate offences.
45. LYON’S ‘MASTERPIECE IN SIMPLICITY’, 2023
For a spin bowler, outshining the mesmerising maestros Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja in India is a bit like out-slugging Rafael Nadal on clay.
They are the established masters of their spin bowling kingdom’s but Nathan Lyon had one glorious Test where he turned the world upside down.
Lyon’s 8-64 in Indore in March, 2023, was a masterpiece of simplicity – bowling from around the wicket, he straightened the ball into the stumps to get three batsman lbw and three bowled as Australia romped to a nine wicket win.
44. WARNE, BUCHANAN FEUD REACHES NEW LOW, 2001
Shane Warne and John Buchanan – the showman and the scientist – never clicked but one stray sentence from Australian coach Buchanan pushed them to a frosty low from which they never recovered.
Speaking after India had made the mother of all comebacks to win the second Test of the iconic 2004 series in India, Buchanan said: “It’s no secret that Warnie’s probably not one of the fittest characters running around in world cricket.”
Warne was furious and Buchanan later regretted the comment but, for all of his anger, it did prompt Warne to commit to a new fitness regime.
43. WARNE CALLS STARC SOFT, 2014
“He has to change his body language. It needs to be stronger. He looks a bit soft.” It was this quote from the late Shane Warne, said in commentary during the Brisbane Test in 2014, which triggered a near-decade-long feud with paceman Mitchell Starc. The quick went wicketless in the first innings and had to be treated by the medical team after toiling in the brutal Brisbane heat. Australia coach Darren Lehmann threatened to confront his former teammate over the criticism, and Warne and Starc rarely exchanged pleasantries from then on. However the feud may not have been all it was cracked up to be. After Warne’s death, close mate Michael Clarke pulled the curtain back on their relationship – saying the spin king actually loved Starc, and his tough love approach was intended to light a fire under the influential fast bowler.
42. PONTING PILES ON BACK-TO-BACK DOUBLES, 2003
It was arguably the series that the great Ricky Ponting stamped himself as the world-class batsman he was to become. He hit 706 runs across the four Test matches making the most of made for batting pitches, at the Adelaide Oval and MCG, with 242 followed by a career best 257 during the Boxing Day Test match of 2003.
41. GILLY’S FORGOTTEN CLASSIC, 2001
A forgotten Adam Gilchrist classic in a forgotten Border-Gavaskar classic. Little more than a year on from his famous Hobart heroics, Gilchrist came out to bat with Australia in serious trouble. With the tourists floundering at 5-99, still 77 behind India’s first-innings total on a pitch doing all sorts, Gilchrist belted 15 fours and two sixes as he raced to his hundred in just 84 deliveries. He would only score one quicker Test ton across the rest of his career.
40. WARNER SLAMS 180, PERTH 2012
It was as a T20 player that David Warner first sprung into the national conscience, and it was a T20-approach that led to the second Test century of his career as he raced to triple figures inside 20 overs. It took him all of 69 balls to get there – no opener has ever scored a ton in fewer deliveries. He slowed down to a more pedestrian 180 off 159 by the end of his innings, with 110 of those runs coming in boundaries.
39. ONE OF PONTING’S BEST FOR LAST, 2012
In what was to be his final year of Test cricket, Ponting saved one of his best innings for last. A double century in unison with Michael Clarke also posting a double ton, Ponting helped engineer a behemoth 298-run win for Australia. The partnership between Ponting and Clarke was the biggest ever at Adelaide Oval. Ponting had been struggling for runs in the twilight of his career, but a hundred in Sydney against India followed up by the double century only emphasised his class as one of the greatest batsmen to ever play the game. A 4-0 series clean-sweep for Australia was sweet.
38. THE SHOT SACHIN REFUSED TO PLAY, 2004
Sachin’s Tendulkar’s epic, unbeaten 241 at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 2, 2004, will always be remembered for the shot he refused to play more than the ones he did.
Tendulkar walked to the wicket with scores of 0, 1, 37, 0 and 44 in the series and decided there was one way to eradicate his dangerous flirtation with the cover drive – simply don’t play the shot.
For 10 hours Australia fed him baited hooks outside off-stump and, with monk-like concentration and restraint, he refused to snaffle the bait.
37. AUSTRALIA’S UNLIKELY, BUT EXPENSIVE, SPIN HERO, 2008
Australia’s hunt for Shane Warne’s reached Jason Krejza in 2008’s series decider. On debut, he collected the Test figures of 12-for-disrespected. The Tasmanian offie went for 11 runs in his first over as the merciless Virender Sehwag swatted him back over his head for two boundaries. Five overs later, Krejza got his man, bowling the big hitting opener for 66. It set the pattern for what was to come across a first innings in which he’d take eight wickets and concede 215 runs. No debutant has ever taken more wickets and only two have conceded more runs in their maiden innings. He collected another four wickets in the second innings – the best of them a wicked offbreak that drifted to drag VVS Laxman’s bat away from his body, before turning in sharply to take out his legstump. Krejza would only play one more Test.
36. DHONI’S CHENNAI DOUBLE, 2013
One-day cricket was ultimately the domain of MS Dhoni and his greatness, but in February 2013 Test cricket became his stage. He unleashed 224 from 265 balls including characteristically punching fours and sixes at will. Dhoni had not passed more than 150 in his other five Test centuries made prior to that match.
35. GRACEFUL BUT BRUTAL: GANGULY PLUNDERS AUSSIES, 2003
India had struggled mightily in their warm-up games, and at 3-62 when the skipper came to the crease, it felt like the series was teetering on the brink for a touring party that had never tasted much success in Australia. In the face of sustained short-ball barrage from a Gillespie-Bichel pace onslaught, Ganguly pummelled Australia with a 144 that was both graceful and brutal. He showed his countrymen he was up for the fight, and challenged them to follow. And they did, drawing the Test – and ultimately the series.
34. HAYDEN SWEEPS HIS WAY TO 119, 2001
Hayden had been a fringe player who at that point in his Test career was averaging in the 20s. But he had spent four years refining a series of sweep shots and even went to the extreme of asking the Allan Border Field curator in Brisbane to dust a wicket up specifically to allow him to prepare for this 2001 Indian tour. When he came out for that first Test he swept India into oblivion in one of the great successful planning missions by an Australian cricketer. It was the turning point of his career which saw him finish one of the all-time greats.
33. VIRAT KOHLI ARRIVES AS A TEST STAR, ADELAIDE, 2012
The 2012 Adelaide Oval Test saw two Indian greats depart, and one arrive. Spurred by a 4-0 whitewash, both Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman called it a day. But as their sun set, Virat Kohli’s rose. Already an established limited overs star, Kohli’s most notable Test contribution to date had been the finger he gave the SCG crowd two matches earlier. Booed from ground to ground all summer, he departed Adelaide Oval to a standing ovation courtesy of a maiden Test century – India’s only of the series. A glittering 116 punctuated by 12 boundaries, it evoked memories of Laxman’s own maiden century at the SCG 12 years earlier for a similarly struggling Indian team.
32. MAGICAL RAHANE TON TURNS SERIES, MCG, 2020
Rolled for 36 at Adelaide Oval, with superstar captain Virat Kohli departing for the birth of his first child, India were given little chance of coming back in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar series. It was at the MCG that Ajinkya Rahane tipped over the first domino that would lead to the eventual storming of the Gabba. A captain’s knock of the highest order, Rahane’s 112 was the focal point of an eight-wicket win and the restart India needed after the Adelaide massacre.
31. SHANE WARNE AND HIS BELOVED BAKED BEANS, 1998
The message had the urgency of a war time fax craving help for undernourished troops in the front line … “send baked beans ASAP’’. Shane Warne was struggling with the local tucker in India and Australia sent a desperate fax to Cricket Australia on the 1998 tour seeking an urgent shipment of baked beans and spaghetti to Chennai. Never has a shipment of baked beans created more hot air as it was tracked by media crews with the sort of forensic zeal normally reserved for royalty, or Taylor Swift. Warne was initially angry with the attention but his mood softened some months later when he landed a six figure sum to promote a baked bean company.
30. PUJARA OWNS THE ADELAIDE OVAL, ADELAIDE, 2018
In 2018/19, Cheteswar Pujara was rightly named player of the series with 521 runs at 74.42 grinding the Australian attack into the ground and making his runs when they counted most. Pujara’s 123 and 71 during the First Test in Adelaide was the difference in a 31-run win. Then with the series on the line and his country holding a 2-1 lead, 193 of seven declared for 622 put an Australian win out of the question.
29. MICHAEL CLARKE DELIVERS AT HOME, SYDNEY, 2012
The last time Australia had played India in a Test at the SCG, Michael Clarke had been the hero with the ball. This time Clarke, by now the Test skipper, was a maestro with the bat, making an unbeaten triple century to grind India into the ground and secure a 2-0 series lead. From a tricky spot at 3-37, Clarke hauled the Aussies to 4-659 declared with support in the form of centuries from both Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey.
28. VERY, VERY SPECIAL ONE-MAN BAND, SYDNEY, 2000
This is one of the great individual innings ever by an Indian batsman and it helped launch VVS Laxman’s legacy as a giant of Test match cricket. Australia was belting India in this series, and Laxman was forced to step into the unaccustomed position of opening the batting. Hit on the helmet by Australian quick Glenn McGrath, a switch appeared to flick inside Laxman that told him he had nothing to lose. Despite his teammates being down and out around him, Laxman rallied to post the first of 17 Test centuries off just 114 balls.
27. ASHWIN SPINS A WEB AROUND AUSTRALIA, CHENNAI, 2013
The 2013 Border-Gavaskar series was as emphatic as it comes for India with a four-nil drubbing of Australia on home soil and of the many highlights was Ravi Ashwin’s 12 wickets in Chennai. Only overshadowed by MS Dhoni’s 224, Ashwin spun a web around Australia’s batters claiming 7-103 in the first innings followed by 5-95.
26. THE HOMEWORKGATE SAGA, 2013
Australia’s 2013 tour of India was an abject disaster – their first 4-0 series defeat in 403 years – and its centrepiece was the homework drama. In the wake of Australia’s humiliating innings defeat in the second Test, four players – Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja and James Pattinson – failed to complete ‘homework’ on how to improve performance, as assigned by coach Mickey Arthur. All four were axed from selection for the third Test, prompting Watson to fly home mid-tour, as debate raged about the severity of the punishment. The results, both in the short- and long-term, were disastrous. Australia suffered heavy defeats in the final two Tests of the series, and Arthur was axed within three months.
25. DIZZY NEW HEIGHTS FOR AUSTRALIA, NAGPUR, 2004
On an uncharacteristically and controversially green pitch, Jason Gillespie led the way with the ball for Australia to clinch a Test series win in India for the first time in 35 years. Overshadowing Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, Gillespie finished with 9-80 for the match, removing Sachin Tendulkar lbw in the first innings for eight and Indian skipper Rahul Dravid for two in the second innings.
24. WAUGH’S BEST SNAPS WINLESS DROUGHT, BENGALURU, 1998
The most stylish Australian batsman of his generation Mark Waugh accumulated centuries but never kicked for that defining big Test innings. His highest score, however, helped snap a 28-year winless drought for Australia on Indian shores. Battling serious gastro Waugh spent over six hours at the crease in the third Test at Bangalore in 1998 to deliver one of his defining innings. With classy use of his feet to the spin and littered with some of his signature drives he finished with 153 not out off 267 deliveries including 13 fours and 4 sixes. Aside from the win it also marked the first Test century for Australia in India for 12 years.
23. EMOTIONAL LYON SPINS AUSTRALIA TO VICTORY, ADELAIDE, 2014
Nathan Lyon was standing 10m from Phillip Hughes when Hughes was struck by the ball which would end his life.
Lyon describes it as by far the worst day of his career so his emotions were in the brittle states when he fronted up at the Adelaide Oval soon after says later to face India in a Test.
But Lyon rallied to take the extraordinary figures of 12-286, affectionately tapping the Australian crest on his shirt after his first victim and noting the poignancy that the key breakthrough on the last day – Murali Vijay – came at 4.08pm, sweetly poetic given Hughes’ test number was 408.
22. WARNE DENIES FLEMING TASTE OF HAT-TRICK HISTORY, ADELAIDE, 1999
Shane Warne loved a celebration but after Australia beat India by 285 runs at the Adelaide Oval in December, 1999, he jumped on a plane and flew home to Melbourne.
Warne was furious with himself for dropping a slips catch which would have made his mate Damien Fleming just the third bowler in history to take two Test hat-tricks.
The banter between Warne and Fleming continued for years. Once asked whether their relationship was faring, Fleming said “I don’t talk to him.’’
An awesome display of fast bowling from Jasprit Bumrah!#AUSvIND | @Domaincomaupic.twitter.com/RcJAuIAPQh
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 28, 2018
21. JASPRIT BUMRAH RUNS RIOT AT MCG, 2018
India had never won a Test series in Australia, and this one was locked at 1-1 heading to the MCG. Enter Jasprit Bumrah, who ran through the Aussies with 6-33 – including a devilish slower ball to remove Shaun Marsh – in the first innings to tighten India’s grip on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. A further 3-53 in the second dig secured player of the match honours.
20. INDIA SECURES FAMOUS ONE-WICKET WIN, MOHALI, 2010
Something of an underrated classic given it was part of a two-Test series that preceded Australia’s Ashes disaster that summer. It was VVS Laxman who again proved the bane of Australia’s existence, making 73 not out batting at No. 7 because of back soreness and putting on 81 for the ninth wicket with Ishant Sharma in the run chase to wrest the Test back in Mohali. Leg byes from Pragyan Ojha meant India snuck home by a wicket.
19. BRETT LEE’S BOXING DAY DEBUT, 1999
Brett Lee took 310 Test wickets but his favourite were his first which came in a spectacular bunch of five.
The 23-year-old burst onto the Test scene like an exploding firework against India in the 1999 Boxing Day Test.
Lee, who claimed is prime concern in his Test debut was not embarrassing himself, took a wicket with the fourth ball of his first over and finished with 5-47 from 17 overs and the talk of a cricketing nation always craving for a speed merchant to take them back to the days of Lillee and Thommo.
18. INDIA ‘B’ PULL OFF THE IMPOSSIBLE, 2021
After it’s humiliating 36 all out in Adelaide, things seemingly went from bad to worse for India. Virat Kohli was granted paternity leave, and went home to India. Leading paceman Mohammed Shami suffered a broken arm and was ruled out for the rest of the series. Umesh Yadav (calf) followed suit soon after, and when Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin all missed the fourth Test, India’s attack was completely unrecognisable. But the emergence of the unheralded Mohammed Siraj, as well as Washington Sundar, changed everything. Having debuted on Boxing Day due to his country’s horrific injury toll, Siraj claimed 13 wickets in three matches highlighted by 5-73 in Brisbane. His efforts in the second innings would set up a famous victory in just his third Test match.
ON THIS DAY 2003, MCG
— Rob Moody (@robelinda2) December 26, 2023
One of the most brutal innings ever seen in Australia
The magnificent 195 from Virender Sehwag
The Australian bowlers were just treated with absolute contempt.
Some of those drives are the stuff of a great great player 🔥🔥🔥
pic.twitter.com/NqYgzvUKyS
17. INDIAN MASTER BLASTER’S BOXING DAY BRILLIANCE, MCG, 2003
Day one at the MCG, and the Indian master blaster Sehwag performed a memorable knock-out on Australia Day. It was a blazing innings featuring 25 fours and five sixes which put India in a position of supreme power at 4-311 when he ultimately departed shortly before stumps. Sehwag was a beast and he made the likes of Brett Lee and Stuart MacGill look pedestrian. This was one of the great individual innings by an opener, which would have gone to another level had India not butchered it by losing their last six wickets for just 16 runs. Australia won easily by nine wickets and tied the series at 1-1 after India had won the first Test. The series would ultimately be drawn and India left to wonder what might have been.
16. DRAVID-LAXMAN 2.0: INDIAN GIANTS DO IT AGAIN, ADELAIDE, 2003
An Indian victory looked the furthest thing from happening in the 2003 Adelaide Test when the touring team was reduced to 4-85 in reply to Australia’s Ponting-powered (242) 555. Alas, two years on from the miracle/nightmare of Eden Gardens, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman returned to haunt Australia. This time around it was Dravid who took the leading role in a 303-run first-innings stand that set up India’s first win down under in 22 years, and took the touring team to a surprise 1-0 lead. Fittingly, it was Dravid who hit the winning runs; cutting Stuart MacGill through point for four.
15. MIND GAMES? MADNESS? GANGULY-WAUGH FEUD, 2001
A case of mind games, or something less sinister? Either way, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly made an impression during the iconic 2001 Test series against Australia by repeatedly turning up late to the toss, irking his Aussie counterpart Steve Waugh. Almost two decades later, Ganguly claimed in an interview with the BCCI website that it had all started accidentally, with the Indian captain accidentally forgetting his blazer, delaying his arrival in the middle.
14. SOK DELIVERS A MIRACLE, PUNE, 2017
Written off as a “safe” selection by Shane Warne who wanted Australia to be more adventurous in finding a spin twin for Nathan Lyon, the maligned Steve O’Keefe delivered a performance for the ages. At lunch on day two and with India 3-70 chasing Australia’s first innings 260, O’Keefe took the unusual step of heading straight back out to the middle to practice his bowling with spin coach Sri Sriram having not been able to land them where he wanted them in his first session bowling in India. The transformation was remarkable. O’Keefe came out and completely skittled India, with the hosts bowled out for 105. The left-arm larrikin from NSW followed up his six first innings scalps with another six in the second, including the prized wicket of Virat Kohli with his 12-70 the best figures by an overseas spinner ever in the subcontinent. This was a famous win for Australia.
13. VIRAT KOHLI’S TWIN TONS, ADELAIDE, 2014
A rookie in 2012, Kohli captained India for the first time in the 2014 Adelaide Oval Test. A certified star by this stage, Kohli endeared himself to local fans through his conduct in the wake of Phillip Hughes’ tragic death, attending the funeral in Macksville.
In eerie scenes at Adelaide, he was struck flush on the helmet by a Mitchell Johnson bouncer on the first ball he faced. The Australian quick was the first to him, and he was quickly surrounded by Australian fielders concerned for his welfare. Shortly after, captain Michael Clarke would check in on Mitchell Johnson too.
Three deliveries later, Kohli put to bed any concerns over his own mental demons, driving Johnson down the ground for the first three runs of an eventual 115.
Two days later, Kohli came out to the middle with India chasing 367 to win on a pitch offering plenty of assistance to Nathan Lyon. It proved an impossible chase, but for the entirety of Kohli’s masterful 141 off 175 it felt like it was destined to be India’s day.
12. PAINE TELLS ASHWIN ‘SEE YOU AT THE GABBA’, 2021
This infamous bit of sledging at the SCG came back to haunt Australia in a massive way when India somehow climbed out of an impossible situation to draw in Sydney and then pull off a remarkable series-clinching victory in Brisbane. Australia looked set to slice through the Indian tail and win at the SCG, before a defiant knock from Ashwin, who was battling a back injury held the home side at bay and secured a gutsy draw. Paine attempted to rile up Ashwin by sledging; “I can’t wait to get you to the Gabba, Ash, I’ll tell you what,” Paine said over the stump mic. He was forced to apologise for crossing the line when he also called Ashwin a d***head. Paine had an uncharacteristically average game with the gloves in that Test and India used the sledge as motivation to lift to their miracle win at the Gabba. Ashwin didn’t play due to his back spasms, but his wife didn’t miss Paine with a tweet after the Brisbane victory saying; “SEE YOU AT THE GABBA MATE.”
11. KOHLI IGNITES RIVALRY WITH SMITH CHEATING ALLEGATIONS, 2017
Relations between Virat Kohli and Australia were at an all-time low in 2017, with the Indian captain finishing the series by declaring he no longer had any friends on the Australian team. The second Test saw the first major flashpoint, with Steve Smith caught looking to the balcony for DRS advice. Smith described it as a ‘brainfade’ but Kohli was having none of it, all but accusing Australia of systemic cheating.
“They’ve been doing that for the last three days and it has to stop,” Kohli said. “There are lines you don’t cross on the cricket field. I don’t want to mention the word, but it falls under that bracket.”
Asked if that word was “cheating”, Kohli replied: “I didn’t say that, you did”.
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