- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
When champion Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar hangs up his boots, there will be a very significant hole in his stellar CV. No Test tons at Lords. Last night was probably his last chance. India won’t be back at the home of cricket for four years, and Tendulkar will be 42.
For a batsman who has accumulated 51 Test centuries all round the world, Tendulkar has made nine trips to the Lords centre for a top score of just 37.
It’s not as if England is a bogey country for “The Little Master”. He’s scored Test tons at Old Trafford (119*) in 1990, Edgbaston (122) in 1996, Trent Bridge (177) in 1996, and Headingley (193) in 2002.
It’s cold comfort for Tendulkar, but he’s one of five among Test cricket’s eight most prolific batsmen who haven’t cracked three figures at Lords:
* Tendulkar (14,738 runs at an average 56.68 with 51 centuries), with scores at Lords of 10 27 31 16 12 37 16 34 and 12 – 195 at 21.67
* Rahul Dravid (12,453 at 52.76 with 33) – 95 46 63 2 9 103* 36 – 354 at 59.
* Ricky Ponting (12,363 at 53.51 with 39) – 14 4 9 42 2 38 26 0 – 133 at 16.63.
* Brian Lara (11,953 at 52.88 with 34) – 6 54 16 5 11 44 – 137 at 22.83.
* Jacques Kallis (11,947 at 57.43 with 40) – 0 13 7 – 20 at 6.67.
* Allan Border (11,174 at 50.56 with 27) – 56* 21* 64 12* 196 41* 35 1 77 – 503 at 125.5.
* Steve Waugh (10,927 at 51.56 with 32) – 152* 21* 13* 9 45 – 240 at 120.
* And Sunil Gavaskar (10,122 at 51.12 with 34) – 4 53 49 5 42 59 34 22 – 268 at 33.50.
Just three Test tons among 55 digs between the eight highest run-getters in history, with Dravid scoring his first in the Test won by England last night by 196 runs.
Obviously England’s batsmen dominate the 218 centuries scored at Lords:
* With six – Graeme Gooch, and Michael Vaughan.
* With five – Kevin Pietersen.
* With four – Allan Lamb, and Andrew Strauss.
* And with three – Jack Hobbs, Len Hutton, Denis Compton, John Edrich, Geoff Boycott, Alec Stewart, Nasser Hussain, Ian Bell, Alastair Cook, Matt Prior, and the only overseas batsman India’s Dilip Vengsaker.
* Among the twos – Don Bradman, Gary Sobers, Walter Hammond, Herbert Sutcliffe, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, Les Ames, Maurice Leyland, Joe Hardstaff, David Gower, Gordon Greenidge, Martin Crowe, Robin Smith, Mahela Jayawardena, Graeme Smith, and Mark Butcher.
The highest scores – Gooch’s 333, Smith’s 259, and Bradman’s 254.
The home of cricket, where anyone who has donned creams would “kill” to have a chance to play there, just once.
Even Sachin Tendulkar would relish just one more chance to be on the Lords Honour Board.