Mumbai&rsquo;s cricket fraternity earned another share of bragging rights on Thursday when city boy Ajinkya Rahane cracked a fine hundred on the opening day of the second Test against England at Lord&rsquo;s on Thursday.
<img title="Ajinkya Rahane" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/sep/Rahane1907.jpg" alt="Ajinkya Rahane" /> Ajinkya Rahane pulls his way to 103 against England at Lord's on Thursday. Pic/Getty Images.
The importance of a Lord&rsquo;s century was not lost on Ajit Agarkar, the last Indian batsman to score a Test ton at the erstwhile headquarters of world cricket.
<img title="Ajit Agarkar" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/sep/Agarkar1907.jpg" alt="Ajit Agarkar" /> Ajit Agarkar cut en route his 109 in 2002
The 2002 Lord&rsquo;s centurion was quick to tweet, &ldquo;Hey buddy, congratulations on an exceptional 100! Very well deserved mate.&rdquo; The word &lsquo;exceptional&rsquo; also figured in mid-day&rsquo;s conversation with Agarkar yesterday evening. The retired all-rounder agreed that there was a ring of disbelief to Rahane&rsquo;s hundred considering India were in the throes of duress at 145 for seven.
&ldquo;I think it was exceptional. If someone would&rsquo;ve said at lunch or tea that someone would go on and get a hundred, you&rsquo;d say it would have to be one of the best hundreds in Test cricket. In that situation, Ajinkya batted aggressively. There were good shots &mdash; no slogging, swinging. It was a superbly paced hundred. In the last session, they got 150 &mdash; exceptional under those conditions.
Normal cricket shots &ldquo;At times, (in a struggling scenario) you say to yourself, &lsquo;I have to hit out.&rsquo; Ajinkya didn&rsquo;t over-hit anything. He just played normally with all cricketing shots,&rdquo; said Agarkar of his Mumbai colleague.
Agarkar&rsquo;s praise brush continued to flow: &ldquo;In those conditions, it was a great hundred especially since he has been a fringe player in the last two to three years. To stand up and play an innings like that, when others around you are struggling, must have given Ajinkya a lot of confidence. He&rsquo;d be very happy; this ton must&rsquo;ve made him very proud.&rdquo;
Talking about his century in the 2002 Test, Agarkar had the same regret as he had then when we spoke on July 30 in London &mdash; of India not being able to draw or win the Test.
Back in 2002... &ldquo;The situation was pretty simple &mdash; we had to play five sessions. There was no hurry to score any runs. It&rsquo;s disappointing that the game was not saved,&rdquo; he said then. Nasser Hussain&rsquo;s Englishmen set India a 568-run target, but they ended up 171 short with No 8 Agarkar staying unbeaten on 109.
Of the nine Indian Test centurions at Lord&rsquo;s, five of them (late Vinoo Mankad, Dilip Vengsarkar (three tons), Ravi Shastri, Agarkar and now Rahane) are from Mumbai. Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar couldn&rsquo;t get their names inscribed on the honours board, but then, as Agarkar said with a chuckle, &ldquo;they have enough hundreds and I don&rsquo;t think they are too worried about it.&rdquo;

City's last Lord's Test centurion before Ajinkya, hails fellow Mumbaikar

Ajinkya Rahane was exceptional all the way: Ajit Agarkar

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Ajinkya Rahane was exceptional all the way: Ajit Agarkar

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