Unforgettable
The 20 greatest Test performances of the last 50 years
No. 1: VVS Laxman, Kolkata The innings that changed the way fielding captains looked at the follow-on. India were 222 behind when Laxman came to bat in the second innings, having already top-scored with 59 in the first. From there on, the supremely dominant Australians were simply spectators at their own destruction.•Hamish Blair/Getty Images
No. 3: Michael Holding, The Oval: On a slow and dusty pitch, where England left-arm spinner Derek Underwood bowled 69.5 overs for 203 runs and got three wickets, 22-year-old Holding took 14 for 149 in 53.4 overs. West Indies won the match by 231 runs and swept the series 3-0, crowing instead of grovelling. •PA Photos
No. 6: Richard Hadlee, Brisbane Hadlee just had to be the chief architect of one of New Zealand's biggest Test wins away from home. He took 15 wickets, including nine in Australia's first innings, in a performance Wisden called "one of the outstanding pieces of contemporary Test match bowling". •Getty Images
No. 9: Graham Gooch, Leeds In England's first home win over West Indies since 1969, Gooch batted for over seven and a half hours, countering the awkward height generated by Curtly Ambrose and a tough batting surface, to carry his bat for 154 out of a total of 252, making 61.11% of the team's score. The next-best score in the Test was Viv Richards' 73.•Claire Mackintosh/PA Photos
No. 12: Allan Border, Port-of-Spain A glimpse of the Australian resurrection he would go on to lead was seen in Border's two defiant match-saving innings in Trinidad in 1984. After batting for six hours for 98 in the first innings, Border returned to the crease on the final day with Australia still trailing by 99 runs. He spent another four and a half hours in the middle, getting to his century with a boundary off the final ball of the Test.•PA Photos
No. 15: Brian Lara, St John's The one-day double-hundred milestone has been breached five times since Sachin Tendulkar first crossed it five years ago. But the Test equivalent - the quadruple-century, made by Lara ten years after he first broke the record for the highest individual score - still looks like a distant outpost. Lara's captaincy was under threat, and a series whitewash by England loomed, but he let it all go to play a nearly chanceless epic innings. •Gordon Brooks/AFP
No. 18: Brian Lara, Colombo In a ten-wicket loss to Sri Lanka, Lara's twin innings stood out like glittering gems in a mountain of rocks, and his handling of Muttiah Muralitharan was a masterclass in facing spin. But after spending 11 and a half hours at the crease, Lara became the first batsman to score a double-hundred and a hundred in defeat. •AFP
No. 2: Ian Botham, Leeds Before Kolkata 2001, the greatest turnaround in Test cricket happened in the 1981 Ashes. Forced to follow on, England were trailing by 122 with five wickets in hand when Botham walked in to bat. "Let's give it some humpty," he told Graham Dilley, his tail-end partner, and proceeded to produce 149 off 148 balls (to go along with a six-for and 50 in the first innings) - just enough to beat Australia by 18 runs.•Adrian Murrell/Getty Images
No. 4: Brian Lara, Bridgetown Having scored a magnificent double-century in the previous Test in Jamaica, Lara added to his legend with a second-innings 153 versus McGrath, Gillespie, Warne and MacGill in Barbados. West Indies successfully chased 308 to go up 2-1 in the series. The next highest score in the innings was Jimmy Adams' 38.•Ben Radford/Getty Images
No. 7: Bob Massie, Lord's One of the most memorable Test debuts of all time: in overcast conditions, Massie swung the ball late and took 16 wickets - eight in each innings. It was the best performance by an Australian bowler in his first appearance since 1890. Massie became the third to take an eight-for on debut, after Albert Trott and Alf Valentine. •PA Photos
No. 10: Garry Sobers, Leeds If you're called the greatest allrounder in the world, you tend to steal the show more often than not. At Headingley, Sobers scored 174, making a hundred between lunch and tea, and took eight wickets to become the first cricketer to reach 5000 runs and 100 wickets in Tests. •PA Photos
No. 13: Imran Khan, Faisalabad First he took 6 for 98 to dismiss India for 372. Then he hit a rollicking century (nine fours and five sixes) from No. 7 to give Pakistan a 280-run lead. And he returned to open the bowling and take five more wickets to clinch a ten-wicket win and become the second man after Ian Botham to score a century and take 10 wickets in a match. All this after having taken an eight-for in the previous Test. •Getty Images
No. 16: Gordon Greenidge, Lord's Need to chase 342 in 78 overs? Call Gordo, he'll do it in 66.1 The pitch had eased out by the final day and the bowling was ordinary, but it was still a monumental effort. Greenidge reached his hundred off 135 balls and 200 with a hook off his 233rd delivery. "We never planned to go after it. It just happened," he said later. His 214 is still the highest score made in a victorious chase.•Adrian Murrell/Getty Images
No. 19: Rahul Dravid, Adelaide The Kolkata heroics of 2001 would have been fresh in Dravid's memory when he walked out to bat in Adelaide facing a deficit of 490 runs. The memory turned into opportunity when VVS Laxman joined him in the middle a few minutes later. But this time Dravid played the lead, making his second double-century in two months. In the second innings, he navigated a tricky chase, batting four hours for an unbeaten 72 to give India their first Test win in Australia in 22 years. •Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
No. 5: Ian Botham, Bombay Botham batted, bowled and drank his way to victory in the one-off Jubilee Test. He took 13 wickets and made 114 off 144 balls - an all-round performance if there ever was one.•Patrick Eagar/Getty Images
No. 8: Muttiah Muralitharan, The Oval On a slow pitch, Murali took 16 wickets to give Sri Lanka their first Test win in England. In the process he took his 200th Test wicket, in his 42nd Test, the second-fastest spinner (along with Shane Warne) after Clarrie Grimmett to reach the milestone. His 9 for 65 in the second innings is the ninth-best innings analysis, and the 16 for 220 for the match is the fifth-best in Tests overall. •Rebecca Naden/PA Photos
No. 11: Anil Kumble, Delhi More than four decades after Jim Laker became the first bowler to take ten wickets in a Test innings, Kumble added his name to the very short list with 10 for 74 against Pakistan. When Pakistan collapsed to 128 for 6 looking to draw the Test on the final day, Kumble had taken 6 for 15 in 44 balls. "That was the moment when I thought all 10 could be mine," he later said.•TC Malhotra/Getty Images
No. 14: Viv Richards, The Oval Before Michael Holding seized the headlines with his 14 wickets on a slow pitch, Viv Richards made his second double-century, and his third 100-plus score, of the series. His 291, which included 38 fours, is still the highest score by a West Indies batsman in England.•PA Photos
No. 17: Curtly Ambrose, Perth The 1993-94 Frank Worrell Trophy was decided by a devastating Ambrose spell. His 7 for 25 on day one at the WACA reduced Australia to 119. Six of the wickets were either caught by the keeper or at slips, and Australian captain Allan Border was dismissed for a first-ball duck.•Ben Radford/Getty Images
No. 20: Narendra Hirwani, Madras Legspinner Hirwani still holds the record for the best figures by a bowler on debut. Like Massie at Lord's, Hirwani took 16, but for one run less. Where Massie took advantage of overcast conditions to swing out England, Hirwani used the turning pitch and flight to lure the West Indies batsmen, five of whom he had stumped. •Simon Bruty/Getty Images