We weren't at all disappointed as we went to Kolkata. We had prepared well for the series, and we knew that a great partnership between Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden had taken the game away from us at Mumbai; there was no other reason. But we were in trouble by the end of the second day in Kolkata, and [Venkatapathy] Raju and I were battling to save the follow-on. That evening, John Wright called me to his room and told me of the responsibility on my shoulders. Chetan Chauhan, our manager, too had a word with me in his room. The best part of that series was that everyone was so united because we knew this was a great opportunity to break Australia's record run; the Chennai camp really got us into the mode mentally. The basic feeling was `Let's just go in and hang in there as long as we can, and get as many runs as possible'.

I thought I had started to time the ball well on the third day. Unfortunately, Raju was out in the morning but [Venkatesh] Prasad gave me wonderful support. He would keep saying, "Laxman, you don't worry, I'll be hanging around. You just play your normal game". So I started playing really positively. But then I got out for 59, caught behind to Shane Warne. It had hit my wrist. I was disappointed because I thought that we had an outside chance of saving the follow-on.

I walked into the dressing room and was about to remove my pads when the captain and the coach asked me to keep them on because I had been promoted to No. 3. This was a great opportunity for me because I had batted at No. 3 right from childhood. I appreciated the gesture.

It was nearly an hour's break. I just sat there and concentrated on the game. Luckily, [Shiv Sunder] Das and [Sadagoppan] Ramesh saw off the new ball. When I went in there, I just wanted to settle down and play every ball on its merit and be positive. Everything fell into place – and in such a big way!

Rahul [Dravid] seemed so pumped up. Honestly, neither of us expected such a turnaround. There were no long-term goals. We thought we'd take it session by session. It was amazing the way the entire team was behind us. There were situations when we were tired and the guys used to come out with water and say `Come on, you've got to do it for the team'. That was really motivating; Rahul and I got stuck into it.

The fourth morning, with the second new ball in operation, was crucial. Once we got through that, we knew that we could bat through the day. After tea, when both of us were tired, we just kept egging one another on, saying, `This is the time to be tough' or `Just one more over' or things like that.

Once they brought on Ricky Ponting and Matt Hayden to bowl, we knew they were under some pressure. But, knowing the Australians, we also realised that if we gave them one chance, they would turn the match around. That gave us additional incentive to concentrate.

I ended that day on 275. Surpassing a legend's [Sunil Gavaskar] record was a great moment in my life. That night the team went to Sourav's [Ganguly] place for dinner. We knew that we had achieved something and that at that stage we were not going to lose the Test. The only question was, could we win? We went back to the hotel and cut a cake in the manager's room, and Sachin [Tendulkar] told us how motivated he was after seeing our partnership. Everyone was just so… involved. Not just me and Rahul, they were all so involved in the partnership.

The next day, when we won the Test… words cannot describe the feeling. It was like a dream – unbelievable.

VVS Laxman spoke to Rahul Bhattacharya, assistant editor with Wisden Asia Cricket

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