India, Nov. 16 -- India's target of 124 in the ongoing Kolkata Test doesn't look huge on paper, but at Eden Gardens, that number suddenly feels a lot heavier. On a pitch where spinners have ripped through both line-ups and 20-plus wickets have already fallen across two days, every run in the fourth innings comes with extra doubt.

History isn't exactly on the batters' side either. In more than nine decades of Test cricket at Eden Gardens, teams have successfully chased in the fourth innings only a handful of times, and only once has the target of more than 100 been overhauled. That lone exception came in another India-South Africa clash, back in 2004.

The benchmark was set in 2004, when India were set 117 after Harbhajan Singh's 7-for sh...