Laxman a major second innings contributor in India's victories

VVS Laxman [ Images ] fell short of his century by four runs, but his 96 that set up India's 87-run victory over South Africa [ Images ] in Durban was easily one of the best innings of his career.

- India's eternal saviour

The stylish Hyderabadi seems to have made it a habit of delivering when the chips are down, especially in the second innings. His magical innings of 281 against Australia [ Images ] in Kolkata [ Images ] was one of the best knocks ever seen in the history of the game and since then Laxman has proved to be India's [ Images ] rescuer quite a number of times.

It is not surprising that he is a major contributor in the second innings in India's victories, way ahead of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ] and Virender Sehwag [ Images ].

A look at India's most successful batsmen in the second innings in wins since the Kolkata Test vs Australia in 2001:

	Mts	Runs	HS	Avg	100	50
VVS Laxman	28	1158	281	72.37	2	8
Rahul Dravid [ Images ]	32	944	180	49.68	2	4
Sachin Tendulkar	29	739	103*	41.05	1	5
Virender Sehwag	24	718	92	37.78	0	5
Gautam Gambhir [ Images ]	13	452	116	45.20	2	2
Sourav Ganguly [ Images ]	21	439	98*	36.58	0	2