Yet another home heartache

vs England (leads 3-1, drew 3-3) in 2001-02: Few gave the English team any hope in the six-match series and when Indian openers guided them to an eight-wicket triumph at Kanpur to take a 3-1 lead, a thrashing was on the cards. But England held their nerve, won the last two games by a whisker and Andrew Flintoff topped it with a shirt-off display at the Wankhede Stadium. For India, a drawn series felt more like defeat.

vs Pakistan (leads 2-0, loses 2-4) in 2004-05: India started off the six-match series in a grand fashion, winning the first two matches with overwhelming ease. But a succession of fine individual performances by Naved-ul-Hasan (6-27), Inzamam (60 not out), Afridi (102) and Malik (72) helped Pakistan to emerge victorious in the last four matches to clinch the series 4-2.