From Sydney 1894/95 to Hyderabad 2023/24: The ten greatest Test comeback wins

Sydney 1894/95: Australia 586 and 166 lost to England 325 and 437 by 10 runs

The only instance of a team winning an overseas Test match after being asked to follow on. England followed on and set Australia only 177 to chase, and the hosts were 113-2 at stumps. However, it had rained overnight, and England had in their ranks Bobby Peel, the Yorkshire left-arm spinner who could be unplayable on wet wickets. He was stone drunk, but after captain ‘Drewy’ Stoddart put him under a cold shower, Peel responded with “give me the ball, Mr Stoddart, and I’ll get t’boogers out before loonch!” He kept his word.

Spare a thought for the legendary George Giffen, whose match haul read 161, 4-75, 4-164, and 53. He batted for five and a half hours and bowled 118 overs in the match.

Durban 1949/50: South Africa 311 and 99 beat Australia 75 and 336-5 by 5 wickets

The only time a team could have enforced the follow on but chose not to, and eventually lost the match. Australia ran into trouble in their first Test series after Don Bradman’s retirement, but they hit back through Bill Johnston (4-39) and Ian Johnson (5-34). They still had to get 336, and at 95-4 things did not really look up for the tourists, but Neil Harvey made 151 not out “without making a mistake” in an exhibition of “extraordinary patience and skill”.

No one with a thousand runs against South Africa averages more than Harvey’s 81.25, and only Ricky Ponting matches his eight hundreds.

Leeds 1981: Australia 401-9 decl. and 111 lost to England 174 and 356 by 18 runs

The second, and perhaps the most famous, instance of a team winning a Test match after following on, and arguably the most improbable one as well. Seven down, with 92 to save the innings defeat, Ian Botham, recently replaced as captain, greeted Graham Dilley with “you don’t fancy hanging around on this wicket for a day and a half, do you?” When Dilley agreed, Botham responded with “right: come on, let’s give it some humpty.”

So give the humpty they did. Botham made 149 in 148 balls; Dilley, 56 in 75; and Chris Old, 29 in 31. Despite all that, Australia needed only 130, and were comfortably placed at 56-1. But at this point, Mike Brearley brought Bob Willis from the Kirkstall Lane End. Willis claimed 8-43 as Australia were shot out for 111.

There have been great turnarounds, but three improbable events – a tail putting up an absurd rearguard act, a bowler defending a paltry score, a sacked cricketer pulling off a miracle – have almost never happened in the same match.

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SSC 1992: Australia 256 and 471 beat Sri Lanka 547-8 decl. and 164 by 16 runs

Australia’s 291-run deficit is still the largest a side has overcome to win a Test match. What makes the victory unusual is the difficulty in picking heroes: all eleven batters reached double figures but no one went past 67 as Australia overcame the colossal deficit to set Sri Lanka 181. At one point, Sri Lanka needed 54 in 25 overs with eight men standing when a dangerous-looking Aravinda de Silva hit Craig McDermott to mid-on. Greg Matthews wrecked the middle order with 4-76 before a young leg-spinner called Shane Warne took three wickets for no run in 13 balls to round things off.

The shocking defeat prompted the local selectors to give out a Test cap to a promising spinner in the next game: Muttiah Muralidaran.

Calcutta 2000/01: Australia 445 and 212 lost to India 171 and 657-7 decl. by 171 runs

The win that ended Australia’s streak of 16 wins. Following on 274 runs behind, India were 254-4 at stumps with two days to play. Then VVS Laxman, promoted to No.3 after his first-innings 59, made 281, at that point the highest score for India, while Rahul Dravid made 180. Set an improbable 384, Australia were three-down at lunch before Sachin Tendulkar struck thrice in quick succession and Harbhajan Singh followed his first-innings 7-123 (including India’s first Test hat-trick) with 6-73 to script a famous win.

Sydney 2009/10: Australia 127 and 381 beat Pakistan 333 and 139 by 36 runs

So astonishing was Australia’s win that theories of fixing did the rounds for some time. Mazhar Majeed, the man behind the 2010 spot-fixing incident, called the result “rigged”, but no one else did, and not much came out of it. With four dropped catches and a missed run out, Kamran Akmal played a role in Australia setting Pakistan 176. The visiting openers got 34 of these runs, but the rest of the batting caved in against Nathan Hauritz (5-53) and Mitchell Johnson (3-27).

Cape Town 2011/12: Australia 284 and 96 lost to South Africa 47 and 236-2 by 8 wickets

Australia were 214-8 at stumps on day one. South Africa closed the next day on 81-1. In between, South Africa resisted, collapsed, blew Australia away, and resurrected. After Australia made 251, South Africa collapsed from 49-1 to 96 against Ryan Harris (4-33) and Shane Watson (5-17). Two hours later, they were batting again, for Vernon Philander (5-15) had shot out Australia for 47 in 18 overs – and even that was a recovery of sorts from 21-9. Amidst all this, Peter Siddle achieved the bizarre feat of either batting or bowling in all four innings on the same day. South Africa completed the chase easily.

Galle 2015: Sri Lanka 183 and 367 beat India 375 and 112 by 63 runs

Dinesh Chandimal had shown glimpses of what was to come during his first-innings 77-ball 59, but that was forgotten after India piled a 192-run lead and had Sri Lanka at 95-5. It was at this point that Chandimal played the innings of his life, sweeping R Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, and Amit Mishra with panache to make 162 not out in 169 balls. India had to make only 176, but they were no match for Rangana Herath (7-48) on a deteriorating surface.

Wellington 2022/23: England 435-8 decl. and 256 lost to New Zealand 209 and 483 by 1 run

The fourth time a team won after following on, and the joint-smallest margin of victory – against England, a team that was quickly earning a reputation for high chases. Kane Williamson (132) made New Zealand’s biggest score, but there were four other fifties including an 83 and a 90. England became 80-5 in their chase of 258 before Joe Root and Ben Stokes added 121 to swing the fortunes, albeit temporarily. The final act came from Neil Wagner (4-62), who dismissed both batters, held a diving catch, and claimed even the last wicket.

Hyderabad 2023/24: England 246 and 420 beat India 436 and 202 by 28 runs

India led by 190 runs and had England at 163-5, but that was where it ended for them. Like Chandimal eight and a half years before him, Ollie Pope swept Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel into submission with a sublime 196 to help England set 231. India, 95-3 at one point, wilted away against Tom Hartley. The first English spinner in 103 years to open the bowling on Test debut, Hartley finished with the best figures by a debutant English spinner in 91 years.