V V S Laxman battled severe back pain to single-handedly take India to a memorable victory over Australia with a gritty unbeaten 73 in a nail-biting first cricket Test on Tuesday in Mohali.
Laxman, who reserved his best for the Australians, played almost a lone hand in India's run chase of 216 as his experienced colleagues fell to poor shot selection and umpiring error as he guided India to one of its most memorable Test victories.
Sachin Tendulkar was the second highest Indian scorer with 38 while young Ishant Sharma contributed an invaluable 31 in the Test which went down the wire.
With the victory, India took an unassailable 1-0 lead in the series and retained the Border Gavaskar Trophy with their seventh highest run chase in history.
Australia 428 (Shane Watson 126, Ricky Ponting 71, Tim Paine 92; Zaheer Khan 5-94) & 192 (Shane Watson 56) v India 405 (Sachin Tendulkar 98, Suresh Raina 86, Rahul Dravid 77; Mitchell Johnson 5-64) & 216-9 (VVS Laxman 73 not out).
