There have solely been 4 situations when a staff following on has gained a Check match. That’s 4 out of roughly 2,500 Checks over 149 years.And but, when one talks in regards to the third such occasion within the sport’s historical past, it’s not solely about statistics, not participant profile, not centuries scored or wickets taken. It’s about ‘atonement’ trumping a way of ‘guilt’.

It’s a few cocky willpower taking a bull-run by the scruff of its neck, a few David telling a Goliath that “the final phrase shall by no means be stated” .It’s like a Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s ‘Lord Jim’, making a profound philosophical exposition on a will to triumph past ambiguity, limitations and the near-impossibility of reaching at a definitive conclusion ‘till the final ball is bowled’!To proceed with the Conradian analogy, the Eden Gardens Check, was in additional methods than one a battle between sympathy and judgment; self and the opposite.Seated within the Press Field on the uppermost tier of the BC Roy Membership Home for 5 days, the imageries simply saved flowing in a stream of consciousness — with poetic justice unmistakably ensconced within the 171-run win, after being dismissed for that very same complete within the first innings!

It’s one match that is still firmly etched in reminiscence — as a lot for the dramatis personae because it was for the drama: Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly infamously holding his Aussie counterpart Steve Waugh ready for the toss; and Waugh ‘reciprocating’ with an open offside area when the Bengal southpaw got here in to bat.Given Ganguly’s penchant for off-side strokeplay, Waugh threw the gauntlet, daring him to play to his strengths, whereas reposing religion in his personal credentials to stymie the enemy after 16 Check wins on the trot.Having suffered a 10-wicket defeat in Mumbai days in the past, India have been but once more staring down the flawed finish of the barrel by the third afternoon at Eden Gardens.The bitter reminiscences of the 1996 IndiaSri Lanka World Cup semifinal and 1999 India-Pakistan Check got here speeding in — leaving one to wonder if ‘Blood, Bottle, and Bisleri’ would as soon as once more rain on Golgotha (a information journal’s headline for its cowl story).On each these events, crowd bother over an imminent Indian defeat had seen all hell break unfastened on the commemorated Eden.However future had one thing else in retailer on the banks of the Hooghly in 2001.For as soon as, as a substitute of objects being hurled from the stands in frustration, Eden Gardens noticed 80,000-strong followers banging their empty plastic water bottles in a calypso to egg-on Ganguly’s males who have been in scorching pursuit of an inconceivable win.For as soon as, ‘redemption’ for the house followers and their staff alike got here by means of the heroics of two soft-spoken however never-say-die crusaders.When Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman traded their capes for India caps.That Dravid, who till then had a nasty patch, didn’t present up on the postmatch press meet, went to function an ideal foil to an Indian captain exhort -ing the media to ask questions “solely in English” to hat-trick man Harbhajan Singh, leaving the off-spinner at his wits’ finish and scribes in splits.Minutes later, as a composed Waugh walked in for the presser, it was ‘calm of thoughts, all ardour spent’.Cricketing justice at its cathartic finest.