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Pluck of the draw

Image: Fan appeal: crowds poured into Lord's in the hope, in part, of seeing Sachin Tendulkar

Benedict Bermange assesses India's ability to save the first Test against England, at Lord's.

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Benedict's back with some more stats...

As the first Test between England and India builds to a gripping climax, Benedict Bermange takes a look at some day five statistics... India have been slow starters on their recent tours of England. Since their victory at Lord's in the first Test in 1986, they lost the first Tests in 1990, 1996 and 2002, and only just scraped a draw in 2007 nine wickets down. Matt Prior is just the second England wicket-keeper to score a century and a fifty in the same Test:
NameScoresAgainstVenueYear
APE Knott101 & 96New ZealandAuckland 1971
MJ Prior131* & 61West IndiesPort-of-Spain 2009
MJ Prior71 & 103*IndiaLord's2011

Andy Flower uniquely scored two centuries in a Test (142 and 199*) while keeping wicket against South Africa at Harare in 2001. In three successive partnerships, Prior and Stuart Broad have recorded century stands - 119 against Pakistan at The Oval in 2010, 108 against Sri Lanka at Lord's in 2011 and 162 (unbroken) here. This is the 12th time an England pair have recorded three successive century partnerships, with the record being four:
Bat 1Bat 2FromUntilParts
ME TrescothickMA Butcher21 March 200207 Nov 2002115, 202, 126, 121

Rahul Dravid's 103no is the first occasion when he has batted at number 3 and remained undefeated with a century in an all-out innings. On six occasions, Dravid has batted for longer than five hours in India's second innings to help draw or win a game in which they had been struggling:
RunsMinsOppositionGroundYearResult
180446AustraliaKolkata2001Won by 171 runs (follow on win)
144418New ZealandMohali1999Draw (all out for 83 in first innings)
112402West IndiesKingston2011Won by 63 runs (all out for 252)
135378PakistanKolkata2005Won by 195 runs (second century of match)
115338EnglandNottingham2002Draw (trailed by 260 on first inns)
87312South AfricaPort Elizabeth2001Draw (395 to win, bats for 84 overs)

India will have had to bat for 125 overs to save the match, something they have done on four occasions:
ScoreOversEnd of match OppositionGroundYear
429/8150.5eight shortEnglandThe Oval1979
325/3136.0105 shortWest IndiesKolkata1948
289/5132.0109 shortWest IndiesMumbai (BS)1958
364/6131.025 shortPakistanDelhi1979

Only two spinners have taken more Test wickets at Lord's than Graeme Swann:
PlayerMatBallsRunsWktsBBIAverage510
H Verity (Eng)71923613428-4314.5921
RWV Robins (Eng)71523789316-3225.4510
GP Swann (Eng)61077509235-6222.1310
JH Wardle (Eng)71748616234-3326.7800
DVP Wright (Eng)51748616235-8029.3421

The leading four wicket-takers are all pacemen (Ian Botham, Fred Trueman, Bob Willis and Brian Statham). Since 2000, only one bowler has conceded boundaries at a greater frequency than James Anderson:
BowlerBalls4s concededPercentage
Chris Martin122549858.04
James Anderson127609967.81
Mohammad Sami75565897.80
SL Malinga54394107.54

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