It was the eve of the 1986 Test series between India and Australia. The conditions in Madras (now known as Chennai) were stifling. Veteran Australian left-arm spinner Ray Bright was thirsty, but mindful of a heavy workload ahead on a pitch that suited his bowling.

"Normally I would've had a couple of beers with some of the boys who didn't mind a sip before the game but I thought, 'it's going to be hot and humid tomorrow' so I better have a quiet night and had some room service," Bright told ABC Sport.

"Unfortunately, the kitchen at the hotel wasn't quite as good as what they are now in India and I had a bad case of food poisoning which stayed with me during the majority of the game.

"It was a pizza of some dodgy type, I don't know if the chef might've put something on it or it might've been something that does happen every now and again.

"I still regret it to this day why I'd bother ordering a pizza in India, there's plenty of other good food you could have over there with no problems."

As Bright's stomach started to churn, Dean Jones was called to the room of captain Allan Border. The 25-year-old Victorian had played two Tests against the West Indies in 1984 and was recalled for the Indian tour thanks to his prowess against spin bowling.

"He said, 'right, you're my number three for the next couple of years, do you want it?' and he looked me down the barrel, 'do you want it?' and I said, 'I've been waiting two years,'" Jones told the 2006 ABC documentary Madras Magic: The Tied Test of '86.

"I walked out of that room feeling 10 foot tall, I felt I was invincible."

A good toss to win

When the team arrived at the MA Chidambaram Stadium the following morning, Bright was in no state to bowl, but he knew telling the hard-nosed Border that he couldn't play wasn't an option worth thinking about.

"I thought, 'gee, I hope we win the toss and bat' because I don't know whether I would have got on the park, I don't know whether I could stay vertical for long enough and stop throwing up," Bright said.

"The 12th man, Dave Gilbert, came in and said, 'we've won the toss and we're batting' so I slumped back on the table and that's where I proceeded to stay for the majority of the day."

India was coming off an impressive 2-0 Test series win in England. Australia was in the doldrums after the retirements of greats Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh in 1984, as well as the loss of players to the 1985 Rebel tour of South Africa.

David Boon's century gave the tourists a strong start and when the moustachioed opener was dismissed late in the day, Border decided to send out a nightwatchman.

"Unfortunately, I'd been a nightwatchman for most of my career," Bright said.

"I was a little bit surprised, I don't know if AB knew I wasn't too well, but anyway, he got me to bat as AB was adamant in things he wanted to do."

Bright fades

On the morning of day two, the 40-degree heat was amplified by the concrete stadium.

According to India's hometown batter Kris Srikkanth, there were three types of weather in Chennai in September.

"Hot, hotter and hottest," Srikkanth told Madras Magic: The Tied Test of '86.

Contending with the heat wasn't the only challenge for players, officials, and spectators. There was a stench that was difficult to stomach.

"The Buckingham Canal that flows past the Madras cricket ground hasn't got the best fragrance in the world, to say the least," Bright said.

Australia resumed on 2/211 with the 32-year-old Bright finding it hard to keep up with Jones.

"I wasn't too good at all, I hadn't been able to eat or drink too much," Bright said.

"And Deano was going on all cylinders, as you'd imagine, running up and down the pitch like a blue-arsed fly.

"I had to tell Deano just to slow down a bit, I couldn't keep running in the heat and the humidity.

"We put on 70, which took a bit of sting out of the Indian attack."

Bright hit a six and three fours in his innings of 30 but the Victorian couldn't see himself lasting any longer.

"The eyes weren't too good and I wasn't thinking clearly, as happens when you're suffering from a bad case of food poisoning and dehydration," Bright said.

"My mind started to cloud a little bit.

"I thought I'm probably better value getting out and getting some of the better batters in."

After he was dismissed, Bright barely made it to the dressing room, where he was attended to by a doctor.

"He was basically gone, he was shot, almost reduced to tears," Boon told Madras Magic: The Tied Test of '86.

Deano dominates

Batting in his baggy green cap and in just his fifth Test innings, Jones reached his maiden century with a single.

"It was the achievement of a player who had learnt to curb impetuosity and work for his runs," commentator Jim Maxwell said in his ABC TV News match report that night.

Waiving his bat to the crowd, Jones knew his job was far from finished.

"I was thinking, 'Oh I've made a Test hundred, you've made it', but my brain was saying, 'I'm not worried about the hundred, I want to get more,'" Jones said.

After taking more than 5 hours to reach three figures, Jones lifted the tempo. Even his opponents were in awe as he repeatedly danced down the pitch to meet their deliveries.

"I've never bowled against a better batter ever in my life, he didn't let me pitch the ball really," Indian spinner Maninder Singh told Madras Magic: The Tied Test of '86.

"The moment I would flight the ball he was there and it was a lovely sight, there are some times in your career when you enjoy being hit.

"I was giving him that challenge, come on, step out and hit me, and he would accept it every time."

Jones and Border were batting the home team into submission, but their exposure to the furnace-like conditions was taking its toll.

Cramping and vomiting

"It got to a stage where I started to cramp up in my hands, you get pins and needles in your hands," Jones said.

"And then I swept one and I started to cramp up in the back leg and then my back.

"I was [on 170] and I knew I was in trouble because I started to urinate in my pants and I couldn't stop it."

Jones was hunched over, resting on his bat and vomiting at mid-wicket, surrounded by concerned Indian players and Border.

"I said to AB, 'I've had enough, I'm stopping the game, this is stupid, I'm vomiting every 2 minutes, we're on TV and every time I hit the ball in the outfield I can only walk one, I can't run, I'm cramping up, I can't move anymore," Jones said.

Australia had won only three Tests since Border had reluctantly taken over the leadership in late 1984. The man who was sometimes referred to as "Captain Grumpy" didn't like the idea of Jones retiring hurt with the Indian bowlers at his mercy.

"I was thinking I can cajole him into a bit more effort, not knowing how crook he really was," Border told Madras Magic: The Tied Test of '86.

"I said, 'If you want to go off now, we'll get someone tough out here, we'll get a Queenslander'.

"I knew that would have the desired effect and a few major expletives later directed back at me, I knew I'd pressed the right buttons."

Deano completes historic double-century

Border's comments were a red rag to a Victorian bull. Jones was soon jogging gingerly down the pitch, now in his wide-brimmed hat, punching the air as he became the first Australian to make a double-century in India.

Australia coach Bob Simpson described the knock as "one of the greatest innings ever played, one of the gutsiest innings ever played".

Nearly four decades after playing in the Test, Indian all-rounder Ravi Shastri is generous in his praise of Jones, who died from a stroke in 2020.

"It was a real test of stamina, grit, determination and the fact that he had AB at the other end, who kept him going," Shastri told ABC Sport.

"It was a monumental effort in those conditions."

Bright had played in the Victorian team with Jones for several seasons and knew he was mentally and physically strong.

"He had tremendous drive and was very fit," Bright said.

"Anyone that's seen him run between the wickets, particularly in one-day games [would know that].

"His concentration was unbelievable, that's one of the things that stood out.

"It was one of the better innings that I've certainly seen in Test cricket."

Jones didn't remember going into the dressing room at tea on 202. Teammates described him as looking like a corpse in pads.

"There'd be people putting ice all over him and towels and whatever else they could do to get his core temperature down," Bright said.

"We were quite happy for Deano to keep going on his merry way so the boys did whatever they could to get him back [to the crease] in as good a condition as they could, so he could continue the great knock."

Dressing room collapse

Jones was bowled for 210, ending his 8-hour vigil. The partnership with Border was worth 178.

"I went into a ball because I was cramping that much and I just couldn't release," Jones said, who lost 8 kilograms during the day.

"I was screaming to high hell, the pain in my back and the stomach, just cramp through my whole body.

"Obviously, dehydration had set in.

"I remember when I got out, I was put in an ice bath and I felt like [it was] lukewarm water.

"It was the first time all day I thought 'I'm half alive here, I'm alright' and I hopped out of the bath and that was it."

Jones fell to the floor and was taken to hospital.

"It wasn't until later that I found out that he'd collapsed and was in very bad shape and had been rushed off to hospital," Border told Madras Magic: The Tied Test of '86.

"That's when I started to think, 'oh my god, I've killed him'."

In cricket-mad India, Jones received rockstar treatment at the hospital.

"I went into the emergency room and there was this one guy really badly injured surrounded by nurses and doctors and he'd been hit by a bus," Jones said.

"All of sudden someone says, 'Australian cricketer, dehydration, Dean Jones' and all of them just left this poor bloke and looked after me."

Jones spent the night on an intravenous drip and was cleared to play the following day.

"I've got to take full credit for his legendary status, if he'd walked off retired hurt 170, mate, no legend," Border said.

The dependable Border made 106 and Australia declared its first innings on 7/574.

At stumps on day three, the home team was in trouble at 5/170. Indian captain Kapil Dev gave his team a dressing down for playing what he described as "one-day cricket". The following day, Dev himself batted like he was in a limited overs game, making a quickfire 119 as India posted 397.

At the end of day four, Australia was 5/170. Border declared, setting India 348 for victory.

Final day run chase as tempers boil

Led by a swashbuckling 90 from Sunil Gavaskar in his 100th consecutive Test, the hosts chased the target with vigour.

Quirky off-spinner Greg Matthews taunted members of the crowd and the Indian team while bowling almost unchanged on the final day. He made light of the heat by fielding in a sweater.

"I don't know whether it was to prove how tough or how silly he was," Bright said.

Bright took the wickets of Gavaskar and another star batter, Mohammad Azharuddin, but then dismissed himself.

"It got to the stage where I just couldn't think clearly so I thought I need to go off and try to wake up and freshen up a little bit and come back if needed but I was hoping the boys would have got the job done," Bright said.

Instead, India took the upper hand, and everyone was getting hot and bothered. Umpire Dara Dotiwalla ordered Border to speed up the game. Border told Dotiwalla what he thought of that request. Dotiwalla threatened to dismiss the captain. Not out batter Shastri tried to calm the situation as further delays would've worked against the Indian team. Players from the opposing teams argued at the drinks break.

"We'd had a three-Test series [against India] in Australia earlier that year and there wasn't much love lost during those particular test matches," Bright said.

"A couple of times, they just kept batting and batting for the sake of batting.

"Off the field, there wasn't much socialising or anything like that.

"That just continued into September [that year].

"It wasn't one of the friendliest Test matches that I've played in, far from it."

An extraordinary finish to a famous Test

India was closing in on the target with wickets in hand. Shastri gestured for more noise from the crowd, which had grown quickly during the day as word spread about India's position of strength. Matthews's colossal effort had yielded 10 wickets for the Test but he needed help from his spin partner.

"I said to Dave Gilbert, 'does AB need me out there again?'" Bright said.

"Dave got a very stern 'tell that weak so-and-so to get out here'.

"Dave came in and put it a little bit more refined than what AB had said."

Back in the middle, Bright picked up three quick wickets as the Test took another twist. A thrilling finish beckoned with India needing four runs for the win while Australia required one wicket. Shastri hit a two and a single to level the scores.

Number 11 batter Maninder Singh was on strike — two balls remained. Singh was struck on the pad by Matthews and given out. Matthews ran off like he'd kicked the winning goal in a FIFA World Cup final and was chased by his exuberant teammates.

"I don't think anyone really knew what the score was," Bright said.

"I thought we'd won and then we were happy to get a tie because it could have gone the other way."

The only other tied Test in the history of the sport was between Australia and the West Indies in Brisbane in 1960. Simpson had the unique experience of playing in the first tied Test and coaching in the second one.

Decision disputed by India

From his view at the non-striker's end, Shastri was adamant that Singh shouldn't have been given out lbw. The all-rounder claimed that Indian umpire V Vikramraju wanted to be a part of history and likened him to a Wild West gunslinger.

"Oh yes he nicked it and the umpire was from Texas, the hand went up even before the appeal was finished," Shastri said.

Shastri stormed into the umpires' room with steam coming out of his ears and told Vikramraju exactly what he thought of the lbw verdict.

"I used some nice choice Aussie language in that room, thank god there was no match referee then, I would've been sitting out for a few games," said Shastri.

Vikramraju wasn't chosen to umpire another test and believed he was made a scapegoat for a decision that was correct.

"The bat was not near the pad, bat never came close to the ball, so I was confident and he was plumb in front of the wicket," Vikramraju told Madras Magic: The Tied Test of '86.

Bright believes that focusing on the final wicket doesn't paint an accurate picture of what went on during five enthralling days in Chennai.

"Let's not forget for the whole test, India took 12 wickets and Australia took 20, plus about eight or nine that also didn't go our way as well," Bright said.

"In those days there were no neutral umpires so the umpiring probably favoured the home side a little bit.

"If there was a little bit of an inside edge, I would've thought that can only be a little bit of karma, can't it."

The legacy of the Tied Test

The other two Tests in the series were drawn and the subcontinent experience would prove invaluable for Border's men. The following year, seven members of the Tied Test 11 played in the team that won Australia's first men's World Cup in India.

Bright says the Tied Test of 1986 also played a pivotal role in helping the Australia-India rivalry become the marquee match-up that it is today.

"This series is now rivalling the Ashes, I don't think it's quite there yet, for India it might be."

The biggest Australia-India moments

Throughout the summer, we'll look back at some of the best stories and share our own favourite moments from Australia and India's cricket history.

Join us to continue the conversation on our live blogs and on the radio over the summer before the readers' top 10 is revealed ahead of the fifth Test at the SCG from January 3.

Select five options to make sure your vote is counted.