Delhi's best Tests over the years

The Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi will host the fourth and the final Test of the Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela series. 

Kotla, as it is often called, has been hosting Tests since 1948, and has been a venue for some excellent contests over the years. Here're some of the interesting matches at Kotla from recent memory.

India v Australia, 2013 - Homework missed, lessons learnt

In many ways, this was a strange one. Much like the ongoing South Africa series, India had already clinched the series going into this final Test, gunning for a whitewash. 

Off-field controversies, including that infamous homework-gate incident had dogged the tourists. One match after having been suspended and making a trip to Australia and back for the birth of his first child, Shane Watson was asked to lead the side in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke. 

Australia won their fourth toss in a row, and batted first again, posting 262 with Peter Siddle scoring the only half-century of the innings. India replied with a 108-run stand for the first wicket but Nathan Lyon's seven-wicket ripped through the rest of the order and restricted their lead to just 10 runs - the lowest lead India had secured in the series by some distance.

In a left-field idea, Glenn Maxwell opened the batting but fell cheaply and only Siddle's 45-ball 50 helped Australia get to 164. India had few hiccups in getting to their target as Cheteshwar Pujara's 82 guided them to a six-wicket win. 

Ravindra Jadeja's seven-wicket haul and a crucial first innings 43 won him the man of the match as India wrapped up the series 4-0.

India v West Indies, 2011 - Ashwin announces himself as India mount record chase

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Ashwin claimed nine wickets on debut // Getty Images

This was a match marked by Test debuts for Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav, with the off-spinner going on to grab the man of the match award with a nine-wicket haul. 

That pushed him to 23rd place on the list of best bowling figures on Test debut, and was the 29th player to have won the man of the match prize in his first match.

What made the match even more interesting was India's chase of 276 in the fourth innings, making it the second-highest score chased down successfully in Tests in India. 

Pragyan Ojha's six wickets spun West Indies out for 304, but India collapsed from 1-100 to 209 all out in reply. Ashwin followed up his three wickets in the first innings with six in the second as the Windies were shot out for 180 but that meant India needed 276 on a slowing surface.

Fifties from Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman helped India win by five wickets. 

Interestingly, none of India's top seven batsmen from that line-up feature in the Indian squad of the ongoing series against South Africa with Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and MS Dhoni having retired from Tests and Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh out of selection favour.

India v Pakistan, 1999 - Kumble's Test match

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10/10 for Kumble // Getty Images

A match in which a bowler re-wrote history. 

Trailing 1-0 at home against Pakistan, India were bowled out for 252 by off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq's five wickets but with help from Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, they retaliated and picked up an 80-run lead. 

Sadagoppan Ramesh hit 96 and Sourav Ganguly made 62 as India set Pakistan a target of 420 on a turning fourth day's track at the Kotla. 

Pakistan went about their chase in a clinical fashion with both Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi dispatching anything loose. The pair added 101 for the first wicket before Kumble's introduction turned the game in India's favour.

Kumble had Afridi nicking to the keeper, and off the next ball sent back Ijaz Ahmed, trapped lbw to a quicker, yorker-length delivery. 

Inzamam-ul-Haq averted the hat-trick, but then chopped Kumble back on to his stumps as he attempted a drive. Two balls later, Yousuf Youhana was adjudged lbw as he padded up to another quick delivery from Kumble. 

Moin Khan's forward-press had him finish rather low to a bouncing delivery and he was caught in the slips off the shoulder of his bat, while Anwar's long vigil was ended as he offered a simple catch to the short-leg fielder off an inside-edge. 

The remaining batsmen offered some resistance but Kumble cleaned up the lower-order to finish with all 10 wickets in the innings, emulating England's Jim Laker's effort in 1956 in the process. India won the Test by 212 runs to level the series.

India v England, 1984 - English resilience stuns India:

England came into the second Test after having been thrashed in the first Test by eight wickets. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan had run through the English batting, finishing with a 12-wicket haul and more of the same was expected at the Kotla.

The hosts made 307 batting first with spinners Phil Edmonds and Pat Pocock grabbing six of the wickets to fall but the first big turnaround of the series came in England's innings. 

Tim Robinson, playing in just his second Test, led England to a 111-run lead with a stodgy 160 before Edmonds and Pocock destroyed India for 235 in the second dig. They shared eight wickets between them as India collapsed from 4-207 to 235 all out. 

England chased down the target of 127 with eight wickets to spare to level the series, which they would go on to win 2-1. Sivaramakrishnan, touted to be India's most potent threat following his first innings exploits, fished out six more in the first innings but he added just four more wickets in the remaining three Tests.

India v Australia, 1996 - Tendulkar begins captaincy career with a bang

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Young Sachin // Getty Images

It was the perfect start to a captaincy career. Playing against arguably the best side at home and winning with some ease, leaving Sachin Tendulkar fans with a lot of hope from his leadership.

The setting was the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy series and the two sides were facing off in a one-off Test match at the Kotla. Australia predictably batted first after winning the toss but lost their last nine wickets for 101 to be bowled out for 182. 

Wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia, pushed up as a make-shift opener, notched up his only international century, a painstakingly slow but highly effective 152 off 366 balls, to help India take a 179-run lead. A 30-year-old Peter McIntyre picked up three wickets in what was to be the second and last Test of his career while debutant Brad Hogg chipped in with one.

Australia batted only marginally better in the second innings, held together by a gritty 67 from Steve Waugh, who faced 221 deliveries for that unbeaten effort. None of the other Australian batsmen passed 50 in the game, leaving India to chase down a mere 56 on the fourth day. 

Interestingly, this Test also saw the start of the great Tendulkar-Glenn McGrath rivalry. McGrath got the better of Tendulkar in the second innings, bowling him out for a duck.

Some other prominent landmarks at Kotla:

In the 2005 Test against Sri Lanka, Tendulkar hit his 35th century to go past Sunil Gavaskar record's of most Test tons. India took a 60-run lead in the first innings and then set Sri Lanka a target of 436 which they fell 188 runs short of. Kumble grabbed 10 wickets in the match to win the man of the match award.

Gavaskar equalled Sir Don Bradman's record of 29 Test centuries with a ton against Clive Lloyd's West Indies in 1983 at the Kotla. The match ended in a draw. 

Geoff Boycott overtook Garfield Sobers' total run-aggregate in the 1981 Test here but the match ended in a high-scoring draw.