Regarding women’s Tests at Lord’s, there is nothing to be said because there aren’t any. It is strange to see that 52 such Tests were played in England with none at Lord’s.
They have been played in some of the Test centres such as Birmingham, Nottingham and the Oval besides some other venues such as Wormsley (Bucks.) and Shenley (Herts.) which most English cricket fans would not have heard of.
So we move to ODIs:
A total of 15 women’s ODIs have been played at Lord’s, all of them involving England. Thus there are no neutral matches here.
Centuries in Women’s ODIs at Lord’s:
The “home” board would include nos 2,3 and 4 on this list.
The “visitors” board would include no 1.
And the “neutral” board would not be needed yet.
The best by an Indian player here is 94* by M Raj in the match on 1 Jul 2012. India won that match by 5 wickets.
The best against India is 156* by SC Taylor listed above. England won that match by 100 runs.
5-fors in Women’s ODIs at Lord’s:
This is an even shorter list.
The “home” board would include nos 2 and 3.
The “visitors” board would include no 1.
The best by an Indian player here is 4-61 by A Das in the match on I Jul 2012, in which M Raj scored the 94* mentioned above. That is the only one of the 3 ODIs at Lord’s which was won by India. (Another one was washed out in 2014).
The best against India is 6-46 by A Shrubsole listed above. That was the final of the World Cup which England won by 9 runs.
The topic of honors boards at Lord’s for Tests has been covered in this blog several times.
Now the authorities have announced that they would be adding honors boards for
ODIs and Women’s matches.
Having covered the centuries, we continue with the 5-fors in ODIs at Lord’s:
Only 9 such instances, compared to the 30 centuries.
No one has taken more than 5 wickets in an innings. And no one has taken a 5-for more than once. Unlike in the case of centuries, we cannot find anyone here who failed to take a 5-for in Tests at Lord’s.
The first such instance was by GJ Gilmour in the final of the 1975 World Cup. The best is 5-30 by DL Vettori vs WI in 2004. Also note J Garner’s 5-38 in the final of the 1979 World Cup.
The “Home” board:
Only one entry here.
The best against India are 4-22 by SJ Harmison on 05 Sep 2004 and 4-46 by LE Plunkett on 17 Jul 2018.
Now for the “Visitors” board:
Somewhat longer. The best by India is 3-26 by A Nehra and 3-28 by Harbhajan Singh in the same match against England on 5 Sep 2004 (in which Harmison also had the best figures against India).
And the “Neutral” board:
In this category India has only played one match, the World Cup final in 1983. India’s best performances were 3-12 by M Amarnath and 3-31 by S Madan Lal. The best against India was 3-32 by AME Roberts.
The topic of honors boards at Lord’s for Tests has been covered in this blog several times.
Now the authorities have announced that they would be adding honors boards for
ODIs and Women’s matches.
We start with the centuries in ODIs at Lord’s:
Here is the entire list of 30 centuries:
A total of 30 centuries have been made here. The highest is 138* by Vivian Richards in the final of the 1979 World Cup. Next is 137 by DL Amiss which was in the very first match of the inaugural match of the World Cup, and another 137 by ME Trescothick in 2001. You can see that Trescothick is the only one to score three centuries here.
Some of the earlier matches were of 60-over duration.
While World Cup matches have been played here in 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1999 (including the finals), none of the Champions Trophy matches in 2004 were played here.
We now list out the centuries in the way they would be listed at Lord’s. They would be in chronological order.
First, the centuries by the home team (15):
The highest is 137 by Amiss and Trescothick. Trescothick has 3 centuries and Gooch 2.
Atherton never scored a Test century at Lord’s, with 99 being is highest in 15 Tests. He does however have a century here in 1995.
There are 4 centuries against India, headed by Amiss’s 137.
Next, the centuries by the visiting team against England (11):
The record score by Vivian Richards is the first such score here.
No one has scored more than one century here.
RT Ponting never scored a Test century at Lord’s, with a top score of 42 in 4 Tests. He does appear here.
No centuries by India here. The highest such score is 90 by SC Ganguly on 5 Sep 2004. Next is 87* by M Kaif in the tri-series final on 13 Jul 2002.
Finally, the centuries by neutral teams (4):
The first is by CH Lloyd in the World Cup final in 1975.
The next two by Mark Waugh and Neil Johnson were in the same World Cup league match in 1999. Johnson’s 132* is the highest score here.
The highest for India was only 38 by K Srikkanth in the World Cup final on 25 Jun 1983. It was the highest score in that match. This is the only neutral ODI played by India at Lord’s.
In that match, the highest score against India was 33 by IVA Richards.
Next we will look at the 5-fors in ODIs at Lord’s. As you may guess, there are considerably less instances than centuries.
Now imagine the concept of a Dishonour Board. For batting, this would be anyone who gets a genuine pair (dismissed for a duck in both innings) at Lord’s:
Dismissed for a pair at Lord’s:
India contributed Murali Vijay and Kuldeep Yadav in the 2018 Test. Earlier that season, Stuart Broad was dismissed for a silver pair (out second ball in each innings). Anderson and Curran both got pairs against India in 2021.
In 2021, Sam Curran became the first to get a golden pair (out first ball in each innings) at Lord’s. No instance could be found of a bronze pair (third ball).
As you may guess, most of these players are not specialist batsmen (though Prior, Stokes and Murali Vijay are exceptions).
Botham’s pair in 1981 was the final trigger to his dismissal from the captaincy, when England trailed 0-1 in the second Test of an Ashes series. Brearley came back as captain, and the rest was history as England won three Tests in a row to win 3-1.
Now we look at those who bowled in each innings of a match and had match figures of 0-100 or worse:
The most runs conceded are 143 by West Indian Fidel Edwards and 142 by Australian AC Agar. The most overs bowled is 51 by R Berry in 1950. That was in the historic victory when the West Indies won in England for the first time.
The only instance from India is that of Shastri, who came up against Gooch’s 333 and 123 in 1990.
And finally, we look at wicket-keepers who did not make a dismissal after fielding in both innings of a match:
Leslie Ames appears here three times in the 1930s. A number of other prominent keepers ranging from Waite to de Villiers are here as well.
Now someone like Andy Zaltzman can take this up further and put up the Dishonour Boards at Lord’s.
You know about the honours boards at Lord’s: one for scoring a century, one for 5wi and one for 10wm. (Then there are separate boards for home, visitors and neutral players. Ignore that for now).
How many players do you think qualify to be on all three boards? One of them joined the club during this Test.
An elite group of all-rounders, with only one visitor (Miller) among them.
CR Woakes scored a century in this match. He had earlier taken 5wi and 10wm in 2016.
He really seems to like Lord’s, as we see from his record here:
Of those who appear on two or more boards. Vinoo Mankad and Ian Botham are the only ones to have taken a century and 5wi in the SAME match.
No one has scored a century and taken 10wm in the same Test at Lord’s. This has been achieved only three times in all Tests, by Botham, Imran and Shakib.
As an afterthought, here are the only two who have scored a fifty and taken 10wm in the SAME Test at Lord’s: they would be duly listed for their 5wi and 10wm, but not for their fifty.
Tail piece: Some readers seem to be unsure about the existence of the 10wm boards. Maybe they are a relatively recent innovation. However, we have some pictures to verify this:
Part of the 10wm board.
Also, when someone gets 10wm with two fivers, both fivers are mentioned on the fiver board. If he gets one fiver and another haul of less than 5 wickets in the match, both are mentioned (and marked) as you can see here:
And finally, one of the obscure boards for neutral Tests:
These were set up in 2010 and so far cover only two Tests, Aus v SA in 1912 and Aus v Pak in 2010.
Having seen the honors boards for neutral Tests and for England, we now look at the corresponding boards for visitors playing Tests at Lord’s.
First, the 105 centuries by visitors:
The highest score here is 259 by GC Smith for SA in 2003.
India’s DB Vengsarkar is the only visitor to score 3 centuries at Lord’s, while several others have scored 2.
Centuries in each innings were made by Headley (106 and 107 for WI, 1939).
Centuries on debut were made by Graham (107 for Aus, 1893) and Ganguly (131 for Ind, 1996). Ganguly’s 131 is the highest by anyone making his Test debut at Lord’s. Graham was the first visitor to score a century at Lord’s.
Now we look at the 85 five-fors by visitors:
The best innings bowling by a visitor is 8-38 by McGrath for Aus in 1997, which is just behind Botham’s 8-34.
CTB Turner, Hadlee and McGrath took 3 five-fors apiece, and several others took 2.
Five-fors by visitors in each innings:
Massie’s effort was on debut, and remains the best bowling for Australia in any Test. It was also the best match bowling by any debutant until India’s Hirwani inched ahead with 16-136 in 1987.
The following visitors took 5-fors on their Test debut at Lord’s:
Massie’s 8-53 is the best here. Nissar’s debut was in India’s first Test.
Visitors who took 10 wickets in a match at Lord’s:
Ramadhin’s effort came in WI’s first victory in England (and the calypso “Cricket, lovely Cricket”).
Massie has the best match bowling figures at Lord’s. And he is the only visitor to take a 10-for on debut at Lord’s.
Looking at all-round performances, the following visitors have scored centuries and taken five-fors at Lord’s (though they may not be in the same Test):
Mankad is the only visitor to score a century and take a five-for in the same Test at Lord’s (184 and 5-196 for Ind in 1952), while Miller did so in different Tests. Thus Botham and Mankad were the only ones to do this at Lord’s. Mankad’s efforts (which included another fifty) were not enough to prevent defeat for his side.
DJ Nash (56 and 11-169 for NZ in 1994) is the only visitor to score a fifty and take 10 wickets in a match at Lord’s. He and MM Ali are the only ones to do this at Lord’s.
This concludes our summary of batting and bowling performances which find their place on the various honors boards at Lord’s.
Now you may well ask “But wait! Where are Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Ponting and Lara? Or Lillee, Warne and Ambrose?”
We now look at the honors boards in England’s dressing room.
A total of 129 centuries were made for England:
The most centuries by an English batsman are 6 each by Gooch and Vaughan.
Centuries in both innings were made by Gooch (333 and 123 v Ind in 1990) and Vaughan (103 and 101* v WI in 2004). Gooch’s 333 is also the only Test triple century at Lord’s. This was also the first instance of a triple century and century in a first-class match. Some years later Sangakkara repeated this in a Test against Bangladesh.
The next highest score for England here is 240 by Hammond v Aus in 1938.
Those who scored a century on debut were Hampshire (107 v WI, 1969), Strauss (112 v NZ, 2004) and Prior (126* v WI, 2007).
Next we look at the 95 five-fors by England:
The most five-forsare 8 by Botham followed by 5 each by Anderson and Trueman. Anderson may yet add to this.
The best performance here is 8-34 by Botham vs Pakistan in 1978, and he also scored a century in that match. Eight-wicket hauls have been made on 4 occasions by Botham (twice), Verity and Underwood.
There are numerous cases of five-fors in both innings. The most recent instance was by Woakes vs Pak in 2016.
It seems to be easier for debutants to take a five-for than to score a century at Lord’s. Here are those who took a five-for on debut:
Cork has the best figures here. No one has taken five-fors in each innings on debut.
And finally, we look at the rather shorter list of the 17 who took 10wm for England:
Underwood is the only one to do so twice.
Verity’s 15-wicket haul is the best here.
Bedser is the only one to do so on debut.
And MM Ali is the only English player to score a fifty and take a ten-for in a Test at Lord’s. He finished the match with a hat-trick.
There are some who have scored both a century and a five-for at Lord’s (though not always in the same Test):
Botham (108 and 8-34 v Pak in 1978) is the only one to do so in the same Test.
Those who scored both a century and ten-for at Lord’s:
None of them scored a century and took 10 wickets in a match (in fact, this has happened only 3 times in all Tests, Botham being the first to do so.) Oddly enough, Allen and Broad scored their only Test centuries at Lord’s.
Finally, in the third part, we will look at the boards for visiting teams.
The feats of scoring a century, five wickets in an innings and ten wickets in a match in Test matches are documented on the boards at Lord’s. There are separate sets of boards for the home team (England), visiting teams and (more recently) teams in neutral Tests.
A total of 135 Tests have been played at Lord’s from 1884 to 2017. 133 involved England and only 2 were neutral. They were: Aus v SA in 1912 as part of the Triangular Tournament, and Aus v Pak in 2010.
3 Tests (including one neutral Test) were played in 1912 and 2010. From 1928 onwards (except in 1940-45) Lord’s has always had at least one Test. When England started hosting two visiting teams in 1965 (starting with NZ and SA) Lord’s always had a Test for each side. Since 2000 there have always been two teams and thus two Tests at Lord’s, except in 2010 when there were three.
Neutral Tests at Lord’s:
We first look at the scanty entries on the boards for neutral Tests:
Centuries:
Two from 1912 and none from 2010.
Five wickets in an innings:
In contrast, there are two from 2010 and none from 1912. Watson and North recorded their first five-fors. In North’s case, he was an occasional bowler and this was his only five-for in Tests.
Ten wickets in an innings:
No instance. The two best match bowling figures are 6-55 by MJ North (as above) and 6-140 by Pakistan’s Mohammed Asif in the same match.
There are 32 such instances at the time of writing.
The achievement of a fifty and 10wm is somewhat less common though the instances can be easily be got from Statsguru:
Fifty and 10 wickets in a Test (as on Jul 11, 2017)
27 entries here, the most recent entrants here being Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Dilruwan Perera. Sir Richard Hadlee is the only one to do this 3 times. No one else has done it more than once.
Also note that Alan Davidson was the first to score a hundred runs and take 10 wickets in a match (though without a century). This was in the Brisbane tied Test of 1960. He held this record for over 19 years. It was not until 1980 that Botham became the first to score a century and take 10 wickets in a match. Imran repeated this a few years later and Shakib followed much later.
While the list of those who scored a century and 5wi is mostly populated by the better-known all-rounders ranging from Sobers to Botham to Ashwin, the second list has a few unexpected names. These include bowlers who were not considered recognized batsmen but somehow managed a fifty: e.g. JK Lever (on debut), Abdul Qadir, DW Steyn and PS de Villiers. Then there are non-regular bowlers (notably AR Border and MG Bevan) who were not regular bowlers but somehow managed a ten-wicket haul.
In several cases these were the only fifties or ten-fors the player achieved in their Test careers. The strangest case may be that of JK Lever, who is the only one to score a fifty and take ten wickets on his debut. He did not achieve either of these again in his 21-Test career.
The honors board at Lord’s are well known-anyone who scores a century or takes a fiver or a tenner gets his name on them, even if it is a neutral Test not involving England. If you need to brush up, see
However, note this extract from the Wikipedia article:
“A number of very distinguished players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Curtly Ambrose and Brian Lara are not named on the honours boards.”
It may be recalled that there was much heartbreak when Sachin failed to score a century in 2011, which was then generally understood to be his last Test there.
We now look at the aspect of prominent players failing to reach a board-worthy performance at Lord’s despite several opportunities. And there are some visitors who simply did not get to play enough at Lord’s.
Many English players whose career lasted about 5 years would have played 10+ Tests at Lord’s. Visiting players with long careers usually manage 4 Tests, unless they miss one Test or series. So we begin by identifying those who batted in at least 8 innings there. A further stipulation is that their batting position is 1 to 8, to eliminate tailenders without much batting ability.
So we have this for Most innings/matches at Lord’s without a century:
Atherton, Thorpe and Gatting played the most innings there without a century-particularly odd as Gatting played for Middlesex. Atherton did score 99 there and has the most fifties (7).
Visitors are led by Gavaskar and Tendulkar, followed by Azhar Ali, Faulkner, AW Nourse, Ponting and R Taylor. Lara played in only 3 Tests and 6 innings. The highest averages here are by Dexter (51.62) and FS Jackson (47.71).
Apart from Atherton’s 99, there are 90s by TE Bailey, JM Parks and FS Jackson.
Most innings/matches at Lord’s without a fifty:
While most of the batsmen here scored at least one fifty, some did not. They include Ramprakash (HS 40 in 13 innings), bowling all-rounder Emburey, Brearley, wicketkeeper Downton, Tendulkar, Faulkner and Ponting. The lowest average here is 10.38 by Ramprakash who was a specialist batsman, unlike some of the others. Then comes all-rounder Pringle (16.11) and another famous batsman Ponting (16.87). Tendulkar at least got into the 20s.
Next, we take up bowlers who bowled at least 1000 balls (while bowling at no 1 to 5) and never took a five-for:
Hoggard has the most Tests (11) and innings (20) here with a best of 4-27. However Edmonds has the best bowling figures of 4-6 followed by Laker with 4-13, while Hoggard has the most wickets (37).
Titmus is the only one who did not even take a 3-for.
Lillee (17 wkts), Kumble and Gibbs are the only visitors here.
Ambrose and Warne did not bowl enough balls here.
The best bowling average here is Laker’s 24.43, followed by Wardle’s 26.78.
And one gets similar results if we look for those who made the same effort and never took a ten-for:
Here, Anderson has the most wickets (110) with a best of 9-43. He may, of course, play a few more Tests at Lord’s. He also has the most 5-fors (7). CM Old has 9-88. Oddly enough Anderson has more than twice the wickets of the next bowler Willis with 47. Bedi, Kapil and Kumble represent India. The best bowling average is by Willis with 18.76 followed by Illingworth with 19.85.
Sir Richard Hadlee has the most wickets by a visitor (26).
This is revised whenever India plays a Test at Lord’s
Here we continue our focus on Lord’s with the list of Indian batsmen and bowlers who figure on the honors boards there.
First, batting:
Some points of interest:
Mankad’s century came along with a five-for. He and Ian Botham are the only ones to score a century and take a five-for in the same match at Lord’s.
Dilip Vengsarkar is the only visiting batsman from any country to score 3 Test centuries at this venue.
Ganguly’s 131 came on his Test debut. It was the highest innings score by anyone making his Test debut at this venue, until D Conway made 200 earlier in 2021.
Agarkar made his only Test century here-all the more remarkable as his next highest score was 41. Now you know the answer to the old quiz question “What batting feat was attained by Agarkar and not by Gavaskar and Tendulkar?”
No instance from 2018.
Now we come to the bowling boards, listing all Indians who have taken 5 wickets in an innings here:
No one from 2018 or even the win at 2021. A fair cross-section of Indian bowlers over the years. Ishant Sharma now holds the record with 7-74, surpassing the record of 6-35 by Amar Singh in 1936. Mohammed Nissar’s fiver came on his Test debut which was also India’s first Test.
There is also an honors board for 10-wicket hauls, in which no Indian appears. There are some performances by English bowlers against India, notably Alec Bedser’s 11-wicket haul on his debut in 1946.
Tail piece: After the 2021 Test, England and India had played 19 Tests there. England lead 12-3 with 4 draws. India’s victories were in 1986, 2014 and 2021.
You would have heard of the honours boards at Lord’s. A summary can be seen here.
The “neutral” boards are dealt with at more length here towards the end of the post.
Basically these boards list all instances of i) centuries ii) five wickets in an innings and iii) ten wickets in a match at this ground. Here we look at instances of all-round performances.
Only two have scored a century and taken a five-for in the same Tests. They are among the all-time greats:
Then there are others who have scored centuries and taken five-fors at Lord’s, but not necessarily in the same Test. The full list (which includes the pair listed above) is:
If you remove Mankad and Botham, you still have Allen, Miller, Illingworth, Flintoff and Broad who have scored centuries as well as five-fors at Lord’s. None have scored more than one century at this venue, though there are some instances of multiple five-fors.
There have been only three instances of centuries and ten-fors in the same Test, and all of them have occurred in Asia. We can find a few who have achieved centuries and ten-fors at Lord’s, but not in the same Test:
Incidentally Allen and Broad scored their only Test centuries at Lord’s.
Let us now look at all-round performances at Lord’s which go beyond the honours boards.
A fifty and ten wickets in the match:
Only one instance. If we “stretch” this to 50 or more runs and ten or more wickets, we get:
Miller and newcomer Woakes are added here.
And finally, 100 or more runs and five or more wickets in the match:
Additions to the original pair of Mankad and Botham (1978) are Morkel, Kapil, Botham (1984) and Mark Butcher. The earlier Morkel does not seem to be related to Albie and Morne. The instance of Botham in 1984 was the time when West Indies made 344/1 to win the match. And Butcher was an occasional bowler who took only 15 wickets in his Test career.
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