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[caption id="attachment_23001" align="alignnone" width="785"] Celebrating 500th Test Match: Greatest moments in Indian test cricket history.[/caption] Internet Desk: As India take on New Zealand in the first of the three Test-match-series here at Green Park, Kanpur subtly makes its way onto the history books as the privileged city to host India’s 500^th Test match. The journey that began on 25^th June 1932 at Lord’s has been in many ways a rollercoaster ride until recently, the mid-2000s, thereafter which the Men in Blue have established themselves as a consistent force to reckon with. On this what-many-might-call an auspicious day for the Indian cricket aficionados all over the planet, let us look back on a number of memorable highlights of the sought after journey. Anil Kumble’s 10-wicket-haul in an innings against Pakistan: One of the most successful leg spinners in the history of the game and the current Head Coach of the Indian National Cricket Team created history on 7^th February 1999 when he had scalped all the ten Pakistani wickets in the second innings of a Test match at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Kumble’s magical 2-hour-and-22-minutes spell restricted the Pakistanis to a paltry 207, 213 runs short of their target despite a solid 101-run-partnership between the two openers, Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi. At the end of the second Test match of the series, the legendary leg spinner’s bowling figures stood at 26.3-9-74-10. Historic Test victory against Australia at Eden Gardens: The spring of 2001 was a challenging one for the Sourav Ganguly-led young Indian National Cricket Team as they were up against the mighty Australians in a three-match-Test-Series at home. The Men in Blue were already trailing the series after a humiliating 10-wicket-defeat in the first Test in Mumbai when it was Kolkata’s turn to host the penultimate Test match. The first couple of innings of the match didn’t go as the Indians would have wanted them to and except Harbhajan Singh’s hat-trick in the first innings of the match there weren’t many highlighting points for the hosts. Trailing by 274 runs at the end of their first innings, the Indians were put into bat again by the Aussie skipper, Steve Waugh as yet another crushing defeat seemed to be fast approaching. However, a record 374 partnership between VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180) didn’t only save the blushes for Team India but propelled them to a memorable 171-run-victory against the World Champions. Virender Sehwag’s blistering 300 vs. Pakistan in Multan: The Test series between India and Pakistan in 2004 was one of the most highly anticipated Teries series of all time. As the Men in Blue took on their arch rivals, Pakistan in the first Test at Multan, Virender Sehwag decided it was time for him to enter into the record books. The ever-aggressive Indian opener dispatched 39 boundaries and cleared the fence 6 times to score a magnificent 309 and thus made his way into the record books as the first Indian to score a triple century in Tests. Later, India not only went on to win the opening match by an innings and 52 runs but the entire Test series by 2-1. Tied Test against Australia: The MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai had witnessed a one-of-a-kind Test match back in the September of 1986.  It was the opening match of the series as the erstwhile World Champions, India were up against the mighty Aussies in what would end up to be a nail-biting encounter. The Australians had put on a massive total of 574 runs at the end of the first innings thanks to Dean Jones’ 210, David Boon’s 122 and skipper, Alan Border’s 106. The Indians in reply were bundled out for 397, with the Indian captain Kapil Dev leading the scoreboard with a well-constructed 119. With a lead of 177 runs at the end of the first innings, Alan Border decided to set the Indians a convincing target of 347 with a single day to go. The Indian top-order responded to the challenge with Sunil Gavaskar scoring a well-tailored 90 but couldn’t cross the final hurdle. With a run away from a memorable victory, Greg Mathews picked up the wicked of Maninder Singh in the second-last delivery of the match to tie the game. First ever victory in Test matches: India had to wait twenty long years before finally it could finally register its first ever international victory. The Vijay Hazare-led side was up against England in the final Test of the five-match-series that were trailing by 1-0 at the historic Oval. After restricting the Englishmen for 266, the visitors totaled 457 in their first innings courtesy a splendid 111 by Pankaj Roy and an unbeaten 130 by Polly Umrigar. The Indian bowlers led by Ghulam Ahmed and Vinoo Mankad bundled the home team for a mere 183 in the second innings to register the most memorable victory in the history of Indian cricket which was worth an innings and 8 runs. Record 413-run opening partnership between Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad: Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad created history back on 7^th January 1956 when they scored a record 413-run opening partnership against the Kiwis in the fifth and final Test match of New Zealand’s tour of India at the Corportion Stadium in Chennai (erstwhile Madras). The partnership was broken when Roy got bowled by Matt Poore on 173 after spending 472 minutes on the crease. It remained the highest opening partnership ever in the history of the sport until 2008 when it was broken by Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie’s 415-run-opening-stand against Bangladesh in Chittagong. Sunil Gavaskar: First to score 10000 Test runs: On 7^th March 1987, Sunil Gavaskar nudged an Ejaz Fakih delivery down the slips not only to take his innings score from 57 to 58 but to enter the record books as the first ever batsman to score 10000 Test runs in the history of cricket. At the end of the day’s play when he was asked about his feeling, Gavaskar replied, “I would have just been happy with 1,000 runs. Now I feel 10 times more fantastic.” India’s highest run chase: The Men in Blue registered their highest run chase back in 1976 against the then feared West Indian side at Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The Caribbean side had set the Indians a mammoth target of 406 with a couple of days of the Test to go. Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath scored a couple of centuries (102 and 112 respectively) while Mohinder Amarnath and Brijesh Patel also contributing with much needed 85-run and 49-run innings respectively to steer the Indians to a memorable victory. Rahul Dravid: Higest number of catches in Test cricket India's most dependable batsman ever Rahul Dravid also known as ' The Wall' holds the record of Highest Test Match catches. A career spanning 16 years (1996-2012) Rahul Dravid played 164 Tests and has taken 210 catches in 301 innings. It is a record still waiting to be beaten by any International cricketer. Other than being a prolific run scorer in the top order ( scored 10899 runs in test cricket) Dravid also had a safe pair of hands.