Cricket at its Home: Top 5 Test-match victories at Lord's, London
The Lord's Cricket Ground commonly known as Lord's, is located in London, England and is one of the most iconic venues to have ever witnessed the sport of cricket. Established as a set of three grounds between 1787 and 1814, the venue is also one of the oldest ever, being over 200 years old.
Named after its founder Thomas Lord, it is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the European Cricket Council (ECC) and, until August 2005, the International Cricket Council (ICC). Lord's is widely referred to as the "Home of Cricket".
The Lord's has been hosting Tests since 1884, ODIs since 1972 and T20Is since 2009, maintaining a pattern of two Tests and two ODIs per year over a more recent period of time. The stadium capacity is at around 28000.
The Lord's has an enormous history in terms of international cricket, having witnessed iconic moments such as India lifting the World Cup in 1983 and the "shirts-off" celebration by Sourav Ganguly after the Natwest 2003 Finals. It is only going to get better in the coming days as India are back at one of their favourite venues in England, to play in the second game of the five-match Test series.
In the meantime, let's take a look at some of the best Test victories that have happened at Lord's.
#1 2nd Test, India's 1974 tour of England: June 24. England win by innings and 285 runs
India has suffered some harrowing losses at the Mecca of cricket, but nothing will come close to the summer of 1974 when hosts England recorded the largest margin of victory in the venue, in terms of innings victories, against India. Batting first, England scored a mammoth 629 with as many as three batsmen - DL Amiss, captain MH Denness and AW Greig - scoring in triple digits, while JH Edrich missed the mark by just four runs. Bishan Singh Bedi of India picked up six scalps, but at the cost of giving away 226 runs.
In reply, India was all-out for 302, Farookh Engineering top-scoring with 86. Gundappa Vishwanath scored 52, while Gavaskar and ED Solkar scored in the 40s. Nobody else contributed much.
Obviously, India had to follow on, facing a 327-run deficit, and while a loss was on the cards, no one would have predicted that it would pan out in the way it eventually did. In the second innings, India was dismantled completely for a mere 42 runs, India's lowest-ever Test score till date. ED Solkar scored 18 as others failed to accumulate even two-digit scores. CM Old was the pick of the bowlers, bowling a single spell of 8 - 3 - 21 - 5, ending the game with eight wickets.