January, Hamilton, 1999. A historic match for India (IND vs NZ) at New Zealand’s home ground. Both teams fought equally. Rahul Dravid made the New Zealand vs India Test match (January 2-6) memorable. He scripted two centuries in two innings. Dravid scored 190 and unbeaten 103 runs respectively at number three.
India lost wickets at the start of the first innings against New Zealand. Openers Navjot Singh Sidhu and Ajay Jadeja were dismissed for 17 runs. Rahul came out to bat at number three position. Sachin Tendulkar came in at number four. Both of them continued to take India’s innings forward. Sachin dismi for an individual 67-run inning, then the team’s score was 126/3. Dravid was still at the crease. After Sachin’s dismissal, Chris Cairns and Simon Doull’s New Zealand went back to the driver’s seat.
Javagal Srinath, came at number nine, formed a big partnership with Dravid. He put up resistance against the New Zealand bowlers. Dravid-Srinath pair scored 144 runs. Dravid returned to the pavilion after Srinath was dismissed for individual 76 runs, Dravid scored 190 runs in 354 balls, his innings was decorated with 31 boundaries. Venkatesh Prasad played a quick innings of 30 runs off 57 balls at number ten. India scored 416 runs in reply to New Zealand’s 366 runs in the first innings.
New Zealand declared the innings by scoring 464 runs for 8 wickets in the second innings. Chris Cairns was adjudged the best cricketer of the match. He took a total of 6 wickets in two innings and scored 126 runs in the second innings. India needed 415 runs to win.
In the second innings, India batted 52.1 overs and scored 249/2; Match drawn. Team India’s openers again could not do anything special. This time Dravid and Sourav Ganguly did their job. Both were unbeaten, Dravid scored an unbeaten 103 runs, Sourav was not out for 101 runs.