Cricketers and their favourite hunting ground

3. VVS Laxman at Kolkata/SCG

Just like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman too has his own hunting ground in Eden Gardens and SCG.

Kolkata

In the folklore of famous heroic Indian victory, the one which comes up instantly is that of the Eden Gardens in 2001 where India came back to win the Test match after being asked to follow-on. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid were the architects of the Indian win from nowhere followed by Harbhajan Singh with the ball.

His marathon innings of 281 helped India take down Australia and square the series at 1-1. India won the third Test match at Chennai eventually and also clinched the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

His record at Kolkata speaks for itself. VVS has amassed 1217 runs in 10 Tests at an average of 110.63 with 5 centuries and 3 fifties and best of 281, which remained the record for India in terms of highest runs before Sehwag’s triple century at Multan.

Sydney

Laxman’s overseas love affair was similar to one with Sachin’s as they shared an equal affection for the ground at SCG. He filled up his boots with a tally of 549 runs in 4 Tests played at an average of 78.42 with 3 centuries and 1 fifty. The wristy Hyderabad batsman is renowned for two of the most famous knocks at the ground.

One came during the 1999 tour where he scored 167 off the 261 total put on by the Indian innings (63.98 % of the total and third highest by an Indian in Test history). He then came back in 2004 and put on a historic partnership with Sachin Tendulkar and slammed 177 which helped India put on a gigantic 700+ score.

Laxman translated his love for Sydney from the Whites into ODIs. His knock of 106* in 2004 against Australia during the VB series of 2004 is still fresh in the memories of the masses.