A special one on Laxman

Perhaps the fate of his international career was written in his debut test. Laxman came in at number 6 with India just 61 runs ahead in the second innings. 13-year old me with my three friends had lost all hope alongwith the Ahmedabad crowd which disrupted the game by throwing missiles onto the field. We left after India lost the sixth wicket. Laxman, however, battled on with Kumble and was the 8th man out, scoring 51 of the 98 runs India scored while he was at the crease. It seemed like a testing but gettable target before Srinath bowled the spell of his career and blew the South Africans away with 6/21. He was deservedly named Man of the Match but VVS on debut had made it possible by playing the kind of innings he would turn in regularly over the next 14 years. To put his effort into perspective, he was only one of two batsmen to post a fifty-plus score in the whole match.

For the complete lowdown, go to bored member Mahek's post, VVS shows time travel is possible, at his blog Confessions of a forced spectator