Often labelled as the Mecca of cricket, Lord’s remains the hallowed ground where almost every cricketer hopes of doing well but only a few have ever managed to do so. Batting great Sachin Tendulkar, who has almost every cricket record under his belt, couldn’t score a Test hundred at the home of cricket. But, believe it or not, Ajit Agarkar did.
For someone who was once tipped as the next big thing in Indian cricket for being fastest to 50 ODI wickets, Agarkar ruled the charts during the 2005-06 season. While his bowling aided India in multiple occasions, Agarkar’s batting, despite visible talent, never got its due. That’s probably why no one would believe he scored a hundred at Lord’s.
July 2002, England set a target of 568 runs for India during the Lord’s Test. Reeling at 170/6, India found an unlikely saviour in Agarkar who stitched a 126-run partnership with VVS Laxman (74) before the latter departed at the score of 296/7. But, Agarkar didn’t stop. He added another 101 runs to India’s total before running out of batting partners at the other end. While India lost the Test by 170 runs, Agarkar remained unbeaten at 109 runs off 190 balls.
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