Indian heroics at Lord's

Lord's. The Home of cricket. The game's headquarters. Holy of Holies. By whichever name it is called, none can dispute its unique place in cricket tradition. It may not be the world's prettiest ground, it certainly isn't the largest. But there is something about it which makes a budding cricketer dream of playing at Lord's. As for the established cricketer, even if has done well on various grounds the world over, he still feels his career is not complete without a good performance at Lord's.

The Indian team, like other visiting sides, have been regular visitors to the hallowed turf ever since their first Test match in 1932. Indeed it somehow seems fitting that first ever game was played at Lord's. It is the only venue on which every Indian touring team has played a Test from that inaugural game till the last visit in 1996. Unfortunately, India has not enjoyed a very good record on the ground. Out of 13 Tests played, India has won only one and lost nine. But some great invididual performances by Indian players have been notched up on this ground. On the special occasion of Lord's being the first ground to stage 100 Tests, here is a trip down memory lane.

1932: Md Nissar stole the early thunder by bowling both Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe with only 11 runs scored on the first morning. He finished with five for 93. On the final day, Amar Singh, coming in at no 9, blazed his way to a hectic 51. Scores: England 259 and 275 for eight declared beat India 189 and 187 by 158 runs.

1936: It was the first Test of a three match series. Amar Singh shot out England in the first innings with a bag of six for 35. Scores: India 147 and 93 lost to England 134 and 108 for two by eight wickets.

1946: It was the first Test of a three match series. Lala Amarnath captured five wickets for 118 off 57 overs in the England first innings after having taken the first four wickets to fall (Hutton, Washbrook, Compton and Hammond) with 70 runs scored. Rusi Modi held the first innings together with an unbeaten 57 while Vinoo Mankad (63) and Amarnath (50) topped the half century mark in the second innings. Scores: India 200 and 275 lost to England 428 and 48 for no loss by ten wickets.

1952: It was the second Test of a four match series. Vinoo Mankad put up the greatest all round performance by an Indian at Lord's. First he scored 72, putting on 106 runs for the first wicket with Pankaj Roy. Then he took five wickets for 196 off 73 overs as England batted almost two full days. In the second innings he again top scored with 184, dominating a record 211 run partnership for the third wicket with Vijay Hazare (49). Hazare had in the first innings scored 69 not out. Mankad incidentally was not part of the original squad and was playing his first match for the tourists after being released from his duties as a professional with Lancashire league club Haslingden. Scores: India 235 and 378 lost to England 537 and 79 for two by eight wickets.

1959: It was the second Test of a five match series and England won the five day game in three days. Nari Contractor played a courageous innings of 81 on the opening day after having had one of his ribs fractured by a ball from Brian Statham. Ramakant Desai took five wickets for 89 runs. In the Indian second innings, Vijay Manjrekar top scored with 61, Scores: India 168 and 165 lost to England 226 and 108 for two by eight wickets.

1967: It was the second Test of a three match series. Ajit Wadekar top scored with 57 in the first innings and Budhi Kunderan who opened the innings was last out in the second innings for 47. BS Chandrasekhar took five wickets for 127 in the only England innings. Scores: India 152 and 110 lost to England 386 by an innings and 124 runs.

1971: It was the first Test of a three match series. India took the first innings lead in a Test in England for only the second time and for the first time since 1936. It was also the first drawn Test India played at Lord's. Venkatraghavan, Chandrasekhar and Bedi displayed their magic taking 17 wickets out of 19 that fell to bowlers while Ajit Wadekar (85), GR Viswanath (68) and Eknath Solkar (67) crossed the half century in the first innings and Sunil Gavaskar top scored with 53 in the second. Scores: England 304 and 191 drew with India 313 and 145 for eight.

1974: It was the second Test of a three match series. India conceded England's highest total at Lord's and their highest in all post war Tests. The visitors were themselves bowled out for 42 in the second innings in 77 minutes and off 17 overs. It was their lowest ever total in Test cricket and the lowest total in all Test matches at Lord's. The saving grace of this debacle was provided by Bedi who despite being the first bowler to concede 200 runs in a Test at Lord's, took six wickets. Farokh Engineer top scored with 86 and shared a first wicket partnership of 131 with Gavaskar (49). Viswanath (52) also topped the half century mark. Scores: England 629 beat India 302 and 42 by an innings and 285 runs.

1979: It was the second Test of a four match series. The highlight was a gallant 210 run partnership for the third wicket between Viswanath (113) and Vengsarkar (103) in the second Indian innings which enabled the visitors to draw the match after they had been bowled out for 96 on the opening day, losing their last four wickets without a run being scored. Gavaskar (59) topped the half century mark in the second innings. Scores: India 96 and 318 for four drew with England 419 for 9 declared.

1982: It was the first Test of a three match series. Kapil Dev took five wickets in the first innings and all three in the second innings and also hit 41 and 89. Vengsarkar, with 157, scored his second century at Lord's. Scores: England 433 and 67 for 3 beat India 128 and 369 by seven wickets.

1986: It was the first Test of a three match series. India gained their first victory in 11 Tests at Lord's. Chetan Sharma took five wickets for 64 in the first innings while Vengsarkar (126 not out) scored his third successive century in Tests at Lord's. He became the first batsman to score three hundreds against England on the ground. Maninder Singh had the remarkable figures of 20.4-12-9-3 in the second innings. Scores: England 294 and 180 lost to India 341 and 136 for five by five wickets.

1990: It was the first Test of a three match series. Ravi Shastri (100) and Md Azharuddin (121) were the century makers in the first innings but the star was Kapil Dev who scored 77 not out and averted the follow in in storybook fashion by hitting four successive sixes off Eddie Hemmings - the only time this has been done in Test cricket. Scores: England 653 for four declared and 272 for four declared beat India 454 and 224 by 247 runs.

1996: It was the second Test of a three match series. Saurav Ganguly stole the thunder by scoring 131 on his Test debut. Rahul Dravid, another debutant, scored 95. Venkatesh Prasad took five for 76 in the first innings, his maiden five wicket haul in Test cricket. Scores: England 344 and 278 for 9 declared drew with India 429.

The narrative will be incomplete without mention of Sunil Gavaskar's 188 in the Bicentenary match at Lord's in 1987. It was in his final first class match.