It’s 25 years since Dilip Vengsarkar’s Lord’s feat

MiD DAY recalls this day in 1986 when Dilip Vengsarkar scored his third Test ton at the home of cricket

It's 25 years since Dilip Vengsarkar's Lord's feat

MiD DAY recalls this day in 1986 when Dilip Vengsarkar scored his third Test ton at the home of cricket

Exactly 25 years ago, Dilip Vengsarkar made Lord's his home.

On June 7, 1986, a push for a single made him the one and only non-Englishman to score three Test hundreds at the home of cricket.

In any case, he joined an exalted list of great English batsmen to score three hundreds at cricket's most hallowed venue... Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir Len Hutton, Denis Compton, John Edrich and Geoff Boycott.

England were dismissed for 294 with Chetan Sharma claiming a fifer. Vengsarkar walked in at the fall of Sunil Gavaskar's wicket with the scoreboard reading 90 for two.

Vengsarkar told MiD DAY yesterday that the most unforgettable part of his unbeaten 126, was the support he got from the bottom half of the orderu00a0 - Chetan Sharma, Kiran More and Maninder Singh, who contributed to India getting a 47-run lead and India winning by five wickets, their one and only Test win at Lord's. Skipper Kapil Dev was man of the match thanks to his five wickets in the Test, which included a brilliant spell of of 4 for 52 in England's second innings.

"His tenth Test century was one of classical elegance, charm and responsibility. Of the sixteen 4s in his unbeaten 126 (213 balls, 326 minutes) many came from handsome drives," wrote Graeme Wright in the 1987 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, which named Vengsarkar among their five cricketers of the year.

His two previous Lord's hundreds came in 1979 and 1982. After 1986, Vengsarkar played another test there in 1990 which yielded scores of 52 and 35. He was caught behind by Jack Russell in both digs. Some experts don't consider Lord's as the home of cricket. Vengsarkar certainly doesn't belong to that category. "Of course it is the home of cricket! Anybody would dream to get a hundred at Lord's and I was no exception. The atmosphere there is electrifying, especially the first three days when it's invariably a full house. In terms of atmosphere, Lord's is right up there," said Vengsarkar. He is a fortunate man! Some of the biggest names of the game don't have a Lord's Test hundred to their name - Sunil Gavaskar (five Tests), Sachin Tendulkar (four Tests).

However, Gavaskar scored an epic 188 for Rest of the World against the MCC in 1987 while Tendulkar has a chance to get a hundred in next month's Test. But, spare a thought for England great Mike Atherton. He walked out to bat on the hallowed turf 27 times in 15 Tests, but couldn't get to three figures. Against Australia in 1993, he was run out on 99.