1981 Melbourne

It was the final Test of the three-match Test series where Australia was leading the series by 1-0 before that game. That game was played at Melbourne Cricket Ground between 7 and 11 February 1981.

Australian skipper Greg Chappell decided to field first after winning the toss. With the help of a crucial 114 runs knock by Gundappa Viswanath, India managed a respectable first innings total of 237 runs. The Aussie pacers Dennis Lillee (4/65) and Len Pascoe (3/29) bowled brilliantly in that innings.

In reply, Allan Border’s 124 and some crucial other knocks helped Australia to score 419 runs before they were all out. The hosts had a 182-run lead at the end of that innings.

Indian openers Sunil Gavaskar (skipper) and Chetan Chauhan played an important role on that innings by scoring 70 and 85 runs respectively as India was bundled out for 324 runs. Aussie pacer Dennis Lillee (4/104) again picked up four wickets in that innings.

Chasing a low total of 143 runs in the fourth innings, Australian batting faced a massive collapse and they were bundled out for just 83 runs while none of the Aussie batsmen reached the 20-run marks. Kapil Dev had a brilliant bowling figure of 16.4-4-28-5 in that innings while India won that game by 59 runs and levelled the series (1-1) at the end. Gundappa Viswanath won the Player of the Match award while the Australian pacer Dennis Lillee won the Player of the Series award.