On This Day: Ajinkya Rahane gets on Lord’s Honours Board
Before him, only eight Indians had achieved the feat of scoring a century at the home of cricket. A Test ton is always special but celebrating one at the historic ground of Lord’s is even special. On this day in 2014, Ajinkya Rahane struck 103 at Lord’s on the opening day of the second Test between India and England.
The collapse
In the opening Test at Nottingham, India gave an ample account of their batting calibre. The visitors posted 457 and 391/9 declared in two innings as the match ended in a draw. At Lord’s, however, the picture was not so perfect.
James Anderson found the outside edge of Shikhar Dhawan early. Before lunch, India lost their other opener, Murali Vijay, and returned to the pavilion with 73/2 at the break. Anderson claimed Virat Kohli’s wicket next. The batsman had a horror series and this was the beginning of his fall. Kohli’s dismissal brought Rahane to the crease.
Taking his time to set himself for a long innings, Rahane grew in confidence after hitting Stuart Broad for two boundaries in an over. While he occupied one end, the wickets fell in a cluster at the other. At 145/7, India were in mortal danger of not even reaching 200 runs.
Rahane leads recovery
Rahane had seen off 69 balls for 28 runs when India were tottering at 145/7. As the only specialist batsman remaining, he took over the reins and controlled the innings. The duo of Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar added 90 runs for the eighth wicket. Sensing the end was nigh, Rahane adopted an aggressive approach as he hit Anderson for a four and a six on consecutive deliveries. He then brought up his century with another boundary off Anderson.
With that boundary through the covers, Rahane became only the 9th Indian batsman to score a century at Lord’s. He fell in the same over to Anderson. India managed to post 295, more than double of the score they had at the loss of the seventh wicket.
Bhuvneshwar’s 6/82, another solid batting effort from him and Jadeja in the second innings and Ishant Sharma’s 7/74 in the final innings saw India winning the Test by 95 runs. Their first at Lord’s since 1986 and Rahane was the only centurion from India.
