In March 2001, Indian cricket team had pulled one of the most significant test victories by beating Steve Waugh-led Australia at Eden Garden. Almost everybody had lost hopes of India's win in that test after as Indian team was forced to follow on after getting out at 171 in the first innings. Australia had scored 445 runs.
Indian team won that match by 171 runs to become only the third team to win a Test after following on.
Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly had lost hope of winning the match and so had everybody else. But Ganguly's mother-in-law had predicted that India would win.
"Australia scored 445 runs. In reply, we got 171 all out. I thought 'gone'. Test match gone. Test series gone. And captaincy gone as well. I remember at the end of Day 3 after Australia had enforced the follow-on, my mother-in-law came to the team hotel. She had brought some home food, and we were having a chat in the room about everything but cricket, and she suddenly said, "Sourav, you will win this game." That's the thing with mothers-in-law - they always say the wrong thing at the wrong time (laughs)," Ganguly told Open magazine in an interview. He was talking about his memoir 'A Century Is Not Enough'.
"Back then, I didn't see the funny side of it, so immediately after she left, I called my wife and said, "Why does your mother do this all the time?" She calmed me down and asked me to forget the whole incident. Two days later, we had pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in a Test match ever, and of course, my mother-in-law never lets me forget her words," he said.
Ganguly believes that victory changed the course of Indian cricket for good.
