On this day: India registered first-ever Test win at Lord’s after 54 years

24 years ago on June 10, 1986, India registered its first Test victory against England at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground. The Kapil Dev-led Indian side pulled off what many Indian sides could not for 54 years. India had played its first Test match at Lord’s back in 1932 but it took them a long time to taste the success of victory.

Captain Kapil Dev was the star of the show as he picked up five wickets in the match – four in the second – and scored an unbeaten 23 when to help India seal a famous five-wicket win on the final day of the Test match. The Test match which began on June 5 was completed on June 10 as the 8th was a rest day.

India had opted to field first after winning the toss. The hosts were bundled out for 294 as Chetan Sharma scalped five wickets.

For England, Graham Gooch top-scored after playing a knock of 114 runs.

India then managed to take 47 run lead in the first innings after registering a score of 341, owing to Dilip Vengsarkar’s knock of 126 runs from 213 balls.

In the second innings, Kapil Dev and Maninder Singh starred with the ball in hand as the bowlers picked up four and three wickets respectively.

Their heroics enabled India to bowl out England for just 180, giving themselves a target of 134 runs to win.

On the final day of the match, Ravi Shastri and skipper Kapil Dev led India to a famous five-wicket win.Dev and Shastri remained unbeaten on 23 and 20 respectively.

Since then India have played 7 Test matches at Lord’s and have managed to win only one in 2014 under MS Dhoni’s captaincy. Ishant Sharma was the Player of the Match for his seven-wicket haul on the last day as India had beaten England by 95 runs.

India have played 18 Tests at Lord’s and have won only twice. The visitors have ended up on the losing side 12 times, while on four occasions the match ended in a draw.

Source: HT