On this day 10 years ago in 2011, the 2000th Test match was played between India and England at the ‘Mecca of cricket’, Lord’s. The game was filled with several milestones. It was also Zimbabwean cricketer-turned-coach Duncan Fletcher’s 100th Test match as a coach.
This encounter also bored the possibility of legendry Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar reaching the landmark of 100 international centuries at the ‘Home of Cricket’. However, much to the disappointment of cricket fans, Tendulkar achieved the historic feat a year later in March 2012 at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Mirpur during an ODI match between India and Bangladesh.
Burdened by several expectations, the Lord’s Test had a very slow start. In fact, the only drama the viewers witnessed on the first day of the match was veteran Indian seamer Zaheer Khan getting removed from the attack due to an injury. Unlike India’s pace attack now, a decade ago, they were not known for their seam bowling. And Zaheer’s removal from the field further weakened India on Day 2.
On the other hand, former England skipper Kevin Pietersen found his groove in the match as he scored his first century at home in three years. He went on to score a double hundred. Pietersen was unbeaten at 202 when England declared their first innings at 474/8.
Indian pacer Praveen Kumar also joined Pietersen on the honour board of Lord’s after picking a fifer in the first innings.
Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid also scored a fighting hundred, but he was not able to inspire visitors to fight back as they lost the match by 196 runs.
India’s tour of England in 2011 was not a memorable one for the visitors as they were humiliated 4-0 in the four-match Test series.
In fact, India did not win a single match during this tour. After the Test series loss, India lost the only T20I match of the series by six wickets before losing the five-match ODI series 3-0. While one ODI game was abandoned, another ended in a tie after rain played spoilsport.
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