Greatest Test So Far

[cricket_icon]

How about you guys nominating what your favourite tests over the last 2000 have been?
Nominate your top five.
I'll need a little time to think about that.

 

[lewissaffin]

The best I've ever seen was Edgbaston 2005 but I have only been following cricket since 2003 (when I was 9 :L)

I've seen videos of 1981 Ashes tests and England's late win in Karachi in 2001 too but nothing can compare to the 2005 Ashes series in the past 15-20 years.

 

[Fenil]

West Indies chasing 400+ total against mighty Aussies.

Laxman rescuing Indians against Aussies in 2001.

Australia failing to chase a paltry score of 103 in 4th innings in Mumbai against India.

England's Ashes win 2005.

Both Tie matches in the history of cricket. Both involved Australia.

 

[AbhishekS]

Australia v India, the match in which India was down and out, with just 2 wickets in hand and 80 odd runs were required when Laxman played one of the several special knocks he has played so far in his test career.

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Obviously there may be many better matches, but I'm choosing the match from the ones which I've watched, not just read about.

 

[cricket_icon]

The best I've ever seen was Edgbaston 2005 but I have only been following cricket since 2003 (when I was 9 :L)

I've seen videos of 1981 Ashes tests and England's late win in Karachi in 2001 too but nothing can compare to the 2005 Ashes series in the past 15-20 years.

If you can get the videos, check out the karachi test, 1994/5 between Australia and Pakistan, absolute thriller, in fact the great umpire Dickie Bird called it the best test he ever stood in. Or the great come back in the Multan tests of 05/06 between England and Pakistan. Who can forget India's run at Australia in 2001.

 

[sami ullah khan]

Pakistan VS India Chennai test. India needed 18 to win with four wickets before the Great Akram and Saqi tore through them. Saching played a brilliant knock of 136 with a bad back but could not get his team across the line.

 

[cricket_icon]

Remember that much as a child, was a huge win and just showed how great Akram truly was.

 

[Aoun13]

I love that Karachi test match between India and Pakistan when Irfan Pathan first demolished us and then we counter attack and won the test match. I love that 4th day(last session) assault by Asif, what a bowler he was.....

 

[cricket_icon]

Muhammed Asif is one of cricket's greatest tragedies . Here is the first of my five tests:

5. Australia v South Africa, MCG, 2008:
This match had everything, great displays of batting and a fine display of fast bowling, split across 2 innings. This is the match in which I fell back in love with fast bowlers, all thanks to a man known as Dale Steyn. He picked up 10 wickets in the match, in an Australian batting line up that included Hayden, Ponting, Hussey and Clarke.
There was a classical century by Ponting which was surpassed by an even more scintillating 166 by JP Duminy, as he made so many of Australia's bowlers look ordinary. It was the match which signalled the loss of Australian dominance at home, in the same way in which the 2005 Ashes series had beckoned the arrival of Australian mediocrity abroad.

 

[Robelinda]

None of you guys had heard of the closest match in test history???? 1 run win for the WI vs Australia in 1993?? 1 run is closer than 2 runs.....

 

[cricket_icon]

4. India v Australia, 3rd Test, 2001 Chennai:
This isn't the Eden Garden test, but it is easily it's best rival. Australia batted first and Matthew Hayden slugged his way to a typically bullish century but then he ripped apart India's bowlers, smashing himself a delicious 203. But it was Harbhajan Singh's 7/133 which ultimately took the headlines. India in reply managed a lead of 110, with Tendulkar scoring a beautifully constructed 126, which I still believe is one of his finest test centuries. It would be H Singh who would once again be the bringer of death for the Australians, who only managed a lead of 155, which India successfully chased,after a few stumbles of course.

 

[sifter132]

None of you guys had heard of the closest match in test history???? 1 run win for the WI vs Australia in 1993?? 1 run is closer than 2 runs.....

Yep, glad someone mentioned that. That's the first really close finish I experienced. I think I burst into tears, definitely ruined my day. The ball came off McDermott's helmet - surely

I also really liked the Aus-SA test at the SCG 2008. Was a war of attrition on a cracking pitch. Graeme Smith broke his hand and bravely came out to bat with Ntini to try and save the game, but they couldn't quite survive. Great last session with tension and drama and heroic performances.

Oh and just to get back at all those 2005 Ashes comments....ADELAIDE 2006 - Amazing Adelaide...

 

[cricket_icon]

I have been neglecting this thread . Here is my pick for the best test ever, number 3:
West Indies v Australia, 3rd Test, 1999 Bridgetown:
Brian Lara, 153, this is what most people remember about a remarkable test and rightly so. The West Indian genius secured the win almost single handedly and played, what I still believe to be his greatest ever innings, test or otherwise. But in highlighting the brilliance of Lara, we forget the grit and determination shown by one S Waugh and the young prodigy Ricky Ponting, both whom scored brilliant centuries, with Waugh finally succumbing at 199.
The match seemed almost done and dusted when the Windies were all out for 329, still a 161 runs short of Australia's first innings total. McGrath and Gillespie were the centre of the attack, taking 7 wickets between them but i twasn't over yet.
In match that sea-sawed for as long as it lasted, it couldn't be so simply, especially if the great Courtney Walsh had anything to do with it. He would pick up 5-39, reducing Australia to 146 all out.
The West Indies were set a target of 309 and having been reduced to 248-8, it was up to Lara to produce his finest innings ever. West Indies won and Lara basked in the glory which he fully deserved.

Stay tuned for my final two picks.

 

[cricket_icon]

2. West Indies v Pakistan, 3rd Test, 2000 Antigua:
These two great cricketing nations have been involved in some of the best test contests of all time and this was possibly the best. Gone were the glory years of the 1980s, and the Windies seemed vulnerable, in fact they seemed mortal. Pakistan batted first and were instantly put to the sword by Walsh and Ambrose. Mohammad Yousuf, or Yousuf Youhana as he was known then, turned on the style and the elegance for which he would become world known, scoring a mesmeric 103 not out, allowing Pakistan to drag themselves to 269.
When the Windies batted, they seemed comfortable, reaching 218-4, that is until Wasim Akram turned up the heat. He ripped apart the lower middle order, providing all those who loved his great performances of the 90s, would finally get to see one more. May be it was his finest performance of the new millennium but it was without a doubt, for a young cricket fan such as me, it was the last hurrah of a darkened hero.
6-61 taken by Akram was not enough, as Pakistan were once again skittled out for a below par 219, giving them a lead of 216. The task seemed almost impossible, with Akram picking up yet another 5 wicket haul but Pakistan were denied but a defiant Adams and a resolute Walsh, who lasted for 72 balls, many of them balled by a now on fire Akram.
The West Indies would go onto win by a wicket and the shadow of a simply horrendous decision by Billy Doctrove would hang over the whole match, but it shouldn't. The two great teams, with their great fast ballers on their last legs, provided an absolute thriller.

 

[sifter132]

Couple I was reading about yesterday to add to the list involving Australia:

Aus v Pakistan 1994/95 in Karachi - Scorecard
Pakistan needed 314 to win, and were 9/258 when Mushtaq Ahmed joined Inzamam. The winning runs came off a missed stumping by Ian Healy as Inzy came down the pitch to Warne. Healy thought it was going to hit the stumps and that made him misjudge it.

THE win that started everything...Australia v England, The Oval, 1882- Scorecard

England had tasted defeat to the upstart Australians in the very first Test a few years earlier, but no one thought that a full strength England side on home soil could be beaten - especially when they needed only 85 to win. But Fred 'Demon' Spofforth came out and skittled the mighty English for only 77, a stunning upset and one that started the Ashes legend as newspapers reported the 'death of English cricket' the next day.