India played their first ever test match at Lord’s in 1932. Despite some good bowling from Mohammad Nishar and Amar Singh, India lost the test match by 158 runs. Since then, India have played test matches at Lord’s in each of their tours to England. However till 1986 India never won a test match at Lord’s, instead, they scored their lowest test total, 42 at Lord’s during the 1974 series. However, India’s next two test matches at Lord’s were memorable for Dilip Vengsarkar who made back to back centuries at cricket’s most mecca.
The 1986 Indian squad had won the World Cup just three years back and now wanted to prove themselves as a strong test outfit too. Kapil Dev won the toss and elected to field. It seemed to be a good decision as at one stage England were 98 for 4. However, Graham Gooch scored a hundred (114) and got support from Derek Pringle (63) to take England to 294 all out. For India, young Chetan Sharma took 5 wickets.
India posted 341 in their first innings as Vengsarkar carried on his love affair with the ground and became the first ever batsman to score three consecutive hundreds in Lord’s tests. His 126 and Mohinder Amarnath’s 69 helped India to take a vital 47 run lead. In their second innings bowling effort, captain Kapil Dev took the lead and scalped four wickets. The spinner Maninder Singh bowled a very miserly spell of 20.4-12-9-3 and England were all out for just 180 at the end of day four.
Indian players went back hoping to register their first victory at Lord’s the next day, on 10th June and it was not easy. They lost both their openers by the time they reached 31. Amarnath and Vengsarkar again formed a partnership but both of them were gone as India were on 78/4. Azharuddin and Ravi Shastri added 32 before the former was run out. This brought Kapil to the crease with 24 required. He did not waste time and scored 23 runs off 10 balls to take India to their first ever victory at Lord’s, the home of cricket. The winning shot was a massive six by Kapil!
