Famous Victory in India’s Backyard Officially Declared as Pakistan’s Greatest Test Match

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has officially revealed Pakistan’s greatest Test match of all time following an online poll.

The iconic Pakistan-India test match at Chennai in 1999 has been voted as the greatest ever match in the longest format from 432 test matches the country has played to date.

PCB had rolled out a poll, asking the fans to vote the greatest test match Pakistan has ever played. The four options included:

• 1954 – Pakistan vs England at the Oval
• 1987 – Pakistan vs India at Bangalore
• 1994 – Pakistan vs Australia at Karachi
• 1999 – Pakistan vs India at Chennai

Relive the magical Test here:

The Chennai Test proved to be the fan-favorite by a huge margin, securing 65% votes from more than 15,000 votes.

The Bangalore Test got 15% while Pakistan’s heroic first Test win on their first tour to England in 1954 is the third greatest Test match.

Pakistan’s thrilling win against Australia at in 1994 Karachi – thanks to a brilliant knock from Inzamam – has won 10% votes.

Pakistan captain at the time, Wasim Akram has termed the match as a benchmark for understanding what pressure is and how to deliver in such situations:

If all those who watched it live can still get goosebumps, just imagine the emotions, reactions and feelings of those who were directly involved in that match. We talk a lot about pressure cricket and a match of fluctuating fortunes, well, if anyone wants to know what pressure is and how to handle and deliver in it, then Chennai Test is the benchmark.

Here’s a brief summary of the match:

Pakistan 238 all out (Moin Khan 60, Mohammad Yousuf 53, Wasim Akram 38, Saeed Anwar 24; Anil Kumble 6-70, Javagal Srinath 3-63) and 286 all out (Shahid Afridi 141, Inzamam-ul-Haq 51, Saleem Malik 32, Mohammad Yousuf 26; Venkatesh Prasad 6-33, Sachin Tendulkar 2-35)

India 254 all out (Saurav Ganguly 54, Rahul Dravid 53, Sadagoppan Ramesh 43; Saqlain Mushtaq 5-94, Shahid Afridi 3-31, Wasim Akram 2-60) and 258 all out (Sachin Tendulkar 136, Nayan Mongia 52; Saqlain Mushtaq 5-93, Wasim Akram 3-80, Waqar Younis 2-26)

Player of the match – Sachin Tendulkar (India)