When a tie was a victory for Border’s battlers

In this special episode of the 81allout podcast, we chat with Michael Sexton on his latest book Border’s Battlers, which provides a fascinating account of the iconic tied Test between India and Australia at Chepauk in September 1986.

Michael has been a journalist, producer, and sportswriter for over three decades and been a part of ABC, BBC, and Channel Nine. He has written eight books and two of them on cricket – Chappell’s Last Stand and Border’s Battlers.

Talking points:

Contextualizing the state of Australian cricket and Border’s captaincy coming into the Test series against India

Vaudeville reenactment of the last over of the tied Test by Greg Matthews

Dean Jones’s magnificent double-century followed by an ambulance ride to the hospital

Getting the geographical specificity of Chennai and Chepauk right

Heroic efforts of Ray Bright and forever-on-the-field 13th man, Mike Veletta

Influence of Bob Simpson and the elephantine memory of Errol Alcott

Kapil Dev’s brilliant counterattacking century

Murmurs of a headbutt and the rancorous spirit through the dramatic stages of the match

The camaraderie and consistency of Dara Dotiwala and Vikram Raju

Shivlal Yadav’s six; a rational and calculative Ravi Shastri under immense pressure

Parallels and the differences to the tied Test in Brisbane in 1960

Participants:

Michael Sexton (@Michael_Sexton5)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@Sidvee)

Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)

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Lead image from Sportstar

Related:

Scorecards of the tied Tests – Brisbane ’60 and Chennai ’86

Madras Magic – a documentary on the Chennai tied Test

Highlights of the Brisbane tied Test

Martin Smith on how the tied Test ended the career of Vikram Raju

Arunabha Sengupta on the dramatic last day of the Test

Dean Jones and the second tied Test at the Bradman Museum

Books recommendations from Michael Sexton:

Edging Towards Darkness – John Lazenby

Harold Larwood: the Ashes bowler who wiped out Australia – Duncan Hamilton