Back in 2008, India heroically won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and also lifted the Test Maze for the first time.
Therefore, the final match of the four-match Test series played at Nagpur holds a special place in the heart of every Indian cricket enthusiast on many accounts.
India humbled a star-studded world-beating Australian team by a margin of 2-0. Thereby, seeking their vengeance for the loss in Australia at the preceding Down Under tour in the same year.
Also, the match was the last international appearance for former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.
And thus, began the end of the era of Fab four of Indian batting. However, Dada and Co. ensured that Indian cricket was in the safe hands of MS Dhoni who already brought home iconic titles.
In a heartwarming gesture, Dhoni asked Ganguly to captain India one last time, in the dying moments of the match. By then, India already ensured their victory with one Aussie wicket remaining.
“As the match came to a close, MS Dhoni in a surprise gesture asked me to lead. I had rejected his offer earlier in the day, but could not refuse a second time. Ironically, my captaincy career had begun exactly eight years ago on this very day,” Ganguly penned down in his autobiography ‘A Century is Not Enough’.
Here’s the video:
Timely gesture.
Saurav "you take over" …
Wind the clock back !!
Final moments. SG Farewell '08.
That's Dhoni !!HBD & HBD in advance Saurav…#MSDhonibirthday @msdhoni@SGanguly99 @ESPNcricinfo @ChennaiIPL @mcjnicholas @BoriaMajumdar @bcci @ICC #Subu_Vintagecricket pic.twitter.com/jz6fvKbbsc
— subu sastry (@suubsy) July 6, 2020
The special match at the then-newly-built Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur was also auspicious for debutants, Jason Krejza and Murali Vijay.
Krejza went on to break all records for debutants in Test cricket by picking up eight wickets, but India went on to post 441 runs, thanks to a Sachin Tendulkar ton.
India went on to win the match by a whopping margin of 172 runs. Earlier, India won the second Test match at Mohali and drew the games at Bangalore and Delhi.
