India's top 5 victories at Lord's across formats
The picture that flashes in our minds on coming across the name Lord's is one of pure serenity. Often referred to as the Mecca of Cricket, Lord's Cricket Ground perfectly typifies the title of being the home to the gentlemen's game.
The beautiful sporting facility in London named after it's founder Thomas Lord's has distinct characteristics that make it stand apart from all other cricket grounds in the world. The old Pavilion built in the Victorian era, the modern Media Centre, the Long Room housed by the Pavilion, honour boards and the continuous sloping nature of the playing field are all such distinctive traits of the 204 year old sporting facility.
Playing cricket at Lord's in itself is a dream come true for so many cricketers, and performing well for their nation and getting recognised over there becomes all the more special. This article encapsulates India's top 5 victories achieved at the iconic stadium.
#1 India v West Indies, 25th June 1983
Arguably the most famous match hosted by Lord's, the Final of the 1983 Prudential World Cup lived up to it's billing. Two time defending champions West Indies looked all set to extend their domination on world cricket with a third consecutive title, but Kapil's Devils had other ideas.
Starting off the tournament as sheer underdogs, the Indian team outplayed their opponents to prove to be the dark horses and also ended up putting their hands on the silverware.
Put into bat by Clive Lloyd, the Indians could not even play out their full quota of 60 overs as the ace quartet of Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Andy Roberts accounted for 8 of them. Opener K Srikkanth top scored with 38 while Mohinder Amarnath (26) and Sandeep Patil (27) chipped in with valuable contributions.
Set a modest 184 to defend their title, the Carribean team looked well on course at 50/1 with Viv Richards and Desmond Haynes milking the Indian bowling. However, a turn of events enabled by sharp bowling, excellent fielding (who can forget Kapil Dev backtracking to pouch an important catch to dismiss Vivian Richards) and poor shot selection from the Windies meant that the underdogs had scripted a fairytale.
Madan Lal (3-31) and the magical spell of Man of the Match Amarnath (3-12) were the wreckers-in-chief as India went on to win the match by 43 runs.