BBC Sport looks at five of the best in recent memory.

South Africa v Australia, Durban, 2001/02

Australia's reputation for easing up in the final match of a series it had dominated gained credence after South Africa won the final Test of a six-match home-and-away series.
Despite bowling their hosts out 148 behind on first innings, Australia collapsed in similar fashion, setting South Africa 335 to win.

Herschelle Gibbs led the way with a brisk hundred, there were half-centuries from Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher smacked a six off the final ball to clinch a five-wicket victory.

"Rather than playing South Africa out of the game like we have done so well throughout the summer, we gave them a sniff of victory, which they grabbed with both hands," wrote Aussie opener Justin Langer ruefully.

England v Australia, Leeds, 2001

Australia's over-inflated self-confidence was pricked and Adam Gilchrist's chances of becoming Steve Waugh's successor as skipper took a hit after a magical innings from Mark Butcher.
Report:
Butcher seals memorable win

Already 3-0 up in a series they had dominated utterly, Gilchrist - standing in for an injured Waugh - declared on the fourth day of a rain-hit match looking to keep prospects of a whitewash alive.

He did not reckon on a virtuoso 173 not out from Butcher - one of several injury-replacements in a battered home side.

The left-hander hooked and pulled at an increasingly frustrated Australia attack, to the delight of a home crowd grown used to defeat, and in the process cemented his long-term place in the side.

India v Australia, Calcutta, 2000/01

Of course, Australian confidence had already taken a blow when their record of 16 consecutive Test victories was brought to a dramatic halt at Eden Gardens.

Incredible India down Aussies

After a routine win in the opening Test it was business as usual for Australia as they racked up 445 in the first innings and bowled their hosts out for 171.

But skipper Steve Waugh admitted later that he erred in enforcing the follow-on in searing conditions. India's batsmen took full advantage.

VVS Laxman shared in a 376-run fifth-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who made 180.

In making 281, Laxman moved past Sunil Gavaskar's previous Indian record of 236 and notched up the highest Test score on Indian soil, surpassing West Indian Rohan Kanhai's 256 in 1958.

That set up spinner Harbhajan Singh, whose 6-73 bowled Australia out 171 runs short, setting up a series win for the hosts.

Australia v Pakistan, Hobart, 1999/00

All winning streaks have to start somewhere and a third consecutive Test victory for a new-look Australia side went a long way in kick-starting that record run.

Despite taking a slight first-innings lead, Australia saw their advantage disappear as Inzamam-ul Haq cracked a century for the tourists.

And a target of 369 - requiring the highest fourth-innings score on Australian soil - was made all the more difficult when Azhar Mahmood dismissed Greg Blewett and Mark Waugh in successive balls to leave the hosts 81-3.

But the revival came thanks to contrasting innings from Justin Langer, who took seven hours over his 127, and Adam Gilchrist, who smashed 149 from 163 balls.

For Gilchrist, appearing in his second Test, the performance went a long way in silencing those who had criticised his selection ahead of Ian Healy for the series.

England v Australia, Leeds, 1981

Butcher's Headingley performance evoked memories of a similar England fight-back at the ground 20 years previously, with Ian Botham as its architect.
Ian Botham
Botham 'just had fun' at Headingley

Along with India's performance in 2001 and England's at Sydney in 1894/95 it is one of only three instances of a side winning a Test after being forced to follow-on.

The tale of Botham's greeting to Graham Dilley when the tailender arrived at the crease with England 135-7 in their second innings - still 90 runs behind - has passed into legend.

"Let's have some fun," the all-rounder is supposed to have announced, launching a 90-run partnership.

Botham hit an unbeaten 149 from 148 balls, taking the hosts into a 119-run lead.

And although Bob Willis then produced a career-best 8-43 to bowl Australia out 10 runs short, the match has entered the annals as Botham's Test.

India v West Indies Port of Spain 1975/76

West Indies will be doubly pleased to have broken the record fourth innings total for victory because the previous mark was set against their predecessors at home.

A match thoroughly dominated by the home side was turned on its head after centuries from Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath.

Viv Richards took control of the match with a first innings 177 after skipper Clive Lloyd won the toss.

Michael Holding proved that it was not simply a batsman's wicket with 6-65 as the tourists were bowled out for 228 - 131 behind.

And Alvin Kallicharan extended the advantage with a second innings century, allowing Lloyd to declare on 271-6, setting India an apparently impossible total.

But India's batsmen proved up to the task, Gavaskar crafting a patient 102, Viswanath 112 and Brijesh Patel an unbeaten 49 to lead the tourists to victory.