Indian heroics at Lord's
Lord's
Partab Ramchand
29-Jun-2000
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.