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 |
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Deputy Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in and can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42)