On this day in 1986, India-Australia played one of only two tied Tests in cricket history

Bhubaneswar: September 22 is a significant day for Indian test cricket. On this day in 1986, India played one of only two Tests in the history of the game that ended in a tie.

35 years ago, India tied the Chennai Test against Australia. It was only the second Test to end in a tie after West Indies and Australia tied theirs in The Gabba in 1960.

Australia toured India in 1986 to play a three-match Test series and five-match One Day International (ODI) series.

The first Test took place in Chennai. The team from Down Under won the toss and elected to bat. Scoring a mammoth 574 runs at the loss of 7 wickets in the first innings, the Australians posed a formidable challenge for the Indian batsmen.

In reply, the Indian top order did not get off to a flying start, having scored just 65 runs at the loss of 3 wickets. Up stepped captain and talisman Kapil Dev whose brilliant 119 took the score to 397. Besides Dev, Ravi Shastri scored 62, Krishnamachari Srikkanth mustered up a well worked 53 and a young Mohammad Azharuddin played a decent innings scoring a half-century.

Already leading by 177 runs, Australia declared at 170/5, giving Team India a target of 348 runs. The Indian batting line up responded well with Sunil Gavaskar scoring 90, Srikkanth again chipping in with a handy 39 while Mohinder Amarnath scored 51.

Team India had to score 18 runs in the last 30 balls with 4 wickets remaining. Chetan Sharma was dismissed when the score read 331 while Kiran More got out at the score of 334.

With four wickets remaining, India needed just 18 runs off the last 30 balls to register an impressive win. First to get out was Chetan Sharma, then fell Kiran More. With four runs required in the final over and one wicket in hand, Ravi Shastri took two runs off Greg Matthews’ second ball then another run in the third ball. Scores were now level but Maninder Singh could not hit the winning run in three balls and the match ended in a tie.