India vs England 2014, 2nd Test at Lord's: A statistical review of the Mecca of Cricket

Lord’s does not need any introduction; the name suffices.

Lord’s is revered as the Mecca of Cricket © Getty Images

India move on to Lord’s for the second Test of the 2014 tour against England following the stalemate at Trent Bridge. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the key numbers at the Mecca of Cricket.

Other grounds — even Melbourne Cricket Ground — need introductions. Lord’s does not. The name suffices. The sheer thought of walking through the Long Room to bat brings goosebumps to youngsters. Everything about the ground — from the moment you enter Grace Gates — is made of dreams. There are bigger grounds; there are grounds that have seen more epic battles; but there has been no Lord’s.

Let us have a look at the numbers at Lord’s, then.

	First Test	Tests	Decided	% Decided	Balls	Runs	Wickets	Ave	SR	Econ
The Oval	1880	96	59	61.5%	1,96,321	93,235	2,893	32.23	67.9	2.85
Old Trafford	1884	75	40	53.3%	1,46,372	66,891	2,153	31.07	68.0	2.74
Lord’s	1884	128	80	61.7%	2,56,592	1,23,073	3,970	31.00	64.6	2.88
Trent Bridge	1899	60	37	62.7%	1,30,018	59,339	1,830	32.43	71.0	2.74
Headingley	1899	73	55	75.3%	1,46,752	68,599	2,313	29.66	63.4	2.80
Edgbaston	1902	47	32	68.1%	90,900	44,518	1,400	31.80	64.9	2.94
Bramall Lane	1902	1	1	100.0%	1,564	823	40	20.58	39.1	3.16
Riverside	2003	5	5	100.0%	8,083	4,767	152	31.36	53.2	3.54
Sophia Gardens	2009	2	1	50.0%	4,147	2,339	50	46.78	82.9	3.38
Rose Bowl	2011	1		0.0%	1,566	895	23	38.91	68.1	3.43

As one can see, there is not much of a difference between the numbers at Lord’s and the other English grounds. Let us, then, look back at some of the best performers at the historic ground.

Top run-scorers at Lord’s:

Overall			Overseas			Indians
	R	Ave		R	Ave		R	Ave
Graham Gooch	2,015	53.02	Warren Bardsley	575	115.00	Dilip Vengsarkar	508	72.57
Andrew Strauss	1,562	52.06	Garry Sobers	571	95.16	Rahul Dravid	354	59.00
Alec Stewart	1,476	44.72	Don Bradman	551	78.71	Sunil Gavaskar	340	34.00
David Gower	1,241	44.32	Shivnarine Chanderpaul	512	85.33	Vinoo Mankad	333	83.25
Kevin Pietersen	1,235	56.13	Dilip Vengsarkar	508	72.57	Gundappa Viswanath	272	34.00

Highest scores at Lord’s:

Overall		Overseas		Indians
	Runs		Runs		Runs
Graham Gooch	333	Graeme Smith	259	Vinoo Mankad	184
Graeme Smith	259	Don Bradman	254	Dilip Vengsarkar	157
Don Bradman	254	Gordon Greenidge	214*	Sourav Ganguly	131
Wally Hammond	240	Bill Brown	206*	Dilip Vengsarkar	126*
Jonathan Trott	226	Martin Donnelly	206	Mohammad Azharuddin	121

Most wickets at Lord’s:

Overall			Overseas			Indians
	W	Ave		W	Ave		W	Ave
Ian Botham	69	24.53	Glenn McGrath	26	11.10	Bishan Bedi	17	28.94
James Anderson	68	25.14	Richard Hadlee	26	21.26	Kapil Dev	17	32.52
Fred Trueman	63	22.12	Malcolm Marshall	20	17.00	Anil Kumble	12	41.00
Stuart Broad	52	27.90	Courtney Walsh	20	22.95	Zaheer Khan	11	26.36
Bob Willis	47	18.76	Charlie Turner	19	14.63	Mohammad Nissar	10	19.70
			Shane Warne	19	19.57	Amar Singh	10	23.00
						Bhagwat Chandrasekhar	10	33.00

As is easily noticeable, James Anderson may turn out to be a major threat for the Indians.

Best bowling at Lord’s:

Overall		Overseas		Indians
	Figures		Figures		Figures
Ian Botham	8/34	Glenn McGrath	8/38	Amar Singh	6/35
Glenn McGrath	8/38	Bob Massie	8/53	Bishan Bedi	6/226
Hedley Verity	8/43	Bob Massie	8/84	RP Singh	5/59
Derek Underwood	8/51	Sid Pegler	7/65	Chetan Sharma	5/64
Bob Massie	8/53	Geoff Lawson	7/81	Venkatesh Prasad	5/76

Highest team scores at Lord’s:

Overall		Overseas teams		India
	Scores		Scores		Scores
Australia	729/6 decl	Australia	729/6 decl	India	454
South Africa	682/6 decl	South Africa	682/6 decl	India	429
England	653/4 decl	West Indies	652/8 decl	India	397
West Indies	652/8 decl	Australia	632/4 decl	India	387
Australia	632/4 decl	Sri Lanka	555/8 decl	India	369

Lowest team scores at Lord’s:

Overall		Overseas teams		India
	Scores		Scores		Scores
India	42	India	42	India	42
New Zealand	47	New Zealand	47	India	93
England	53	Australia	53	India	96
Australia	53	West Indies	54	India	110
West Indies	54	South Africa	58	India	128

Biggest partnerships at Lord’s:

	Overall			India
Wicket	Runs	Batsmen		Runs	Batsmen
1st	268	Jack Hobbs	Herbert Sutcliffe	131	Farokh Engineer	Sunil Gavaskar
2nd	291	Andrew Strauss	Robert Key	126	Virender Sehwag	Rahul Dravid
3rd	370	Bill Edrich	Denis Compton	211	Vinoo Mankad	Vijay Hazare
4th	286	Kevin Pietersen	Ian Bell	83	Nari Contractor	Jayasinghrao Ghorpade
5th	216	Allan Border	Greg Ritchie	142	Dilip Vengsarkar	Yashpal Sharma
6th	274*	Garry Sobers	David Holford	94	Sourav Ganguly	Rahul Dravid
7th	174	Colin Cowdrey	Godfrey Evans	126	VVS Laxman	Ajit Agarkar
8th	332	Jonathan Trott	Stuart Broad	74	Lall Singh	Amar Singh
9th	130	Steve Waugh	Geoff Lawson	66	Kapil Dev	Madan Lal
10th	83	Ray Illingworth	John Snow	63	Ajit Agarkar	Ashish Nehra