Cricket at its Home: Top 5 Test-match victories at Lord's, London

The Lord's Cricket Ground commonly known as Lord's, is located in London, England and is one of the most iconic venues to have ever witnessed the sport of cricket. Established as a set of three grounds between 1787 and 1814, the venue is also one of the oldest ever, being over 200 years old.

Named after its founder Thomas Lord, it is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the European Cricket Council (ECC) and, until August 2005, the International Cricket Council (ICC). Lord's is widely referred to as the "Home of Cricket".

The Lord's has been hosting Tests since 1884, ODIs since 1972 and T20Is since 2009, maintaining a pattern of two Tests and two ODIs per year over a more recent period of time. The stadium capacity is at around 28000.

The Lord's has an enormous history in terms of international cricket, having witnessed iconic moments such as India lifting the World Cup in 1983 and the "shirts-off" celebration by Sourav Ganguly after the Natwest 2003 Finals. It is only going to get better in the coming days as India are back at one of their favourite venues in England, to play in the second game of the five-match Test series.

In the meantime, let's take a look at some of the best Test victories that have happened at Lord's.

Dennis Amiss batting against India in 1974

#1 2nd Test, India's 1974 tour of England: June 24. England win by innings and 285 runs

India has suffered some harrowing losses at the Mecca of cricket, but nothing will come close to the summer of 1974 when hosts England recorded the largest margin of victory in the venue, in terms of innings victories, against India. Batting first, England scored a mammoth 629 with as many as three batsmen - DL Amiss, captain MH Denness and AW Greig - scoring in triple digits, while JH Edrich missed the mark by just four runs. Bishan Singh Bedi of India picked up six scalps, but at the cost of giving away 226 runs.

In reply, India was all-out for 302, Farookh Engineering top-scoring with 86. Gundappa Vishwanath scored 52, while Gavaskar and ED Solkar scored in the 40s. Nobody else contributed much.

Obviously, India had to follow on, facing a 327-run deficit, and while a loss was on the cards, no one would have predicted that it would pan out in the way it eventually did. In the second innings, India was dismantled completely for a mere 42 runs, India's lowest-ever Test score till date. ED Solkar scored 18 as others failed to accumulate even two-digit scores. CM Old was the pick of the bowlers, bowling a single spell of 8 - 3 - 21 - 5, ending the game with eight wickets.

#2 1st Test, Bangladesh's 2005 tour of England: May 28. England win by innings and 261 runs

English jubilation after the game

The Asian nations have almost always found Lord's a tough nut to crack, as was eventually discovered by Bangladesh in their first tour to England in 2005. The first game was at Lord's and the visitors were subjected to the added pressure of batting first in front of a boisterous home crowd of Day 1. And soon enough, they folded, for a paltry sum of 108 runs. No one apart from Javed Omar and Aftab Ahmed scored beyond 20, as the pace trio of Hoggard-Harmison-Flintoff wreaked havoc without mercy. The former picked four wickets and emerged the best bowler, while the remaining two picked two each.

When England's turn came to bat, they literally toyed with the Banglas' meek attack, Trescothick and Vaughan scoring hundreds. The former was dismissed six runs short of a 200, but that changed nothing, as Strauss, Ian Bell, and Graham Thorpe provided Vaughan good support with scores of 69, 65 and 42 not out, respectively. Eventually, they declared at 528 for 3, leaving the Tigers a huge deficit to chase, and at best avoid an innings defeat. They failed to do so, getting all-out for 159, a tad better than their first innings score. Hoggard and Harmison picked two wickets, while Flintoff led the pack this time with three on his own.

England thus completed a win by an innings and 261 runs, just 24 runs short of the Lord's record - the 1974 win against India.

#3 2nd Test, Australia's 2015 tour of England: July 19. Australia win by 405 runs

A moment from the game between England and Australia

The Ashes contests over the years have created quite a lot of sparks due to the immense competition that surrounds the whole event. The 2015 Ashes were no different as it featured an England side looking to stage a comeback and an Australian side, fresh from the World Cup win.

In the second Test, Australia started batting first and thanks to vital contributions from Chris Rogers (173) and Steven Smith (215), the Aussies declared at 566 for 8. No other batsman scored more than 45 runs. In an innings where James Anderson went wicketless, Stuart Broad scalped four wickets, while Smith had the most unusual of dismissals to a most unusual bowler - an LBW to Joe Root.

After the loss of Adam Lyth in the very first ball of the innings, England looked to recuperate under Alastair Cook (96) and Gary Ballance (23) until Ballance fell. Afterwards, a whole pack of England wickets fell, until Ben Stokes (87) tried to stage a rescue act but not for long. The hosts eventually ended proceedings at 312.

Aussie captain Michael Clarke had an option to send England in for a second time, but instead opted to bat again and raise the lead even higher. His plan worked, as composed batting from himself and the likes of Warner and Smith who scored 50s and Chris Rogers who scored 49, helped them post 254 for 2, before leaving England to chase a 509-run target. It was immediately rendered impossible, as everyone just waited for the margin of the Aussie victory.

England, in turn, performed poorly en-route to a mere 103 as Australia celebrated a huge win - by 405 runs.

#4 1st Test, South Africa's 1994 tour of England: July 24. South Africa win by 356 runs

It's our own Gary Kirsten, donning that hat over there

South Africa were at a point where they had just recently returned to International Cricket following the apartheid-ban lifted from the side, and in 1994 they toured to England. In the first game, they were made to bat first, and thanks to Keppler Wessels (105) and Gary Kirsten (72), they scored 357 in the first innings. England could not produce a similar impact in the second innings, getting bowled out for 180 runs as Allan Donald became wrecker-in-chief with five wickets.

South Africa did well in their second turn as well, eventually declaring at 278 for 8, Gary Kirsten (44) top-scoring for the side. England needed 455 runs to win but a very disciplined effort by the Protean bowlers meant that they folded for just 99 runs, giving the opponents a 356-run win.

This was also one of the very rare occasions where a touring side won at Lord's, and so the victory was all the more special. South Africa thus showed signs of being on the right path while in their comeback to International Cricket. Of course, this was much before the likes of Hansi Cronje and Herschelle Gibbs were caught for match-fixing and related crimes.

#5. 3rd Test, Windies' 1973 tour of England: August 27. Windies win by an innings and 226 runs

Spectators at Lord's following the epic clash

This one was in the Lord's records' list for a year, until England triumphed against India with a bigger margin. This is still one of the largest wins by a touring side in the venue, as Rohan Kanhai's side outclassed Illingworth's England completely, over a period of just three out of five possible days.

Batting first, the Windies side had three centurions in Kanhai, Gary Sobers, and BD Julien, as the visitors skyrocketed to 652 for 8. No one other than KW Fletcher (68 and 86) offered any resistance as the hosts surrendered the game meekly, posting scores of 233 and 193 in their follow-on. Keith Boyce picked up four wickets in each England innings, and was given ample support by Holder and Lance Gibbs.

The end of the match saw hundreds of victory-mad Windies fans soaring on to the pitch, celebrating the fall of the hosts, as seen from the picture above.