Australia’s history at Lord’s

With the 2nd Ashes Test of the 2019 series in England just around the corner, the Aussies head to Lord’s 1-nil up in the series after an amazing win at Edgbaston that saw them come back from a tough position in the first innings.

Edgbaston has recently been known as a bit of a fortress for the home side, becoming a notoriously hard to conquer venue for visiting sides. The victory was Australia’s first win at the ground since 2001.

Lord’s on the other hand has been a happy hunting ground for Australia, their most successful English venue in the long history of the Ashes.

The 2nd Test starts on Wednesday 14th August 2019 at 8PM AEST.

Strangely enough, two of the Test matches Australia have played at Lord’s weren’t actually against England, so this skews the record just a touch.

Way back in 1912, the Imperial Cricket Council scheduled a triangular Test series in England involving the hosts, as well as Australia and South Africa.

Prior to the series, there was a serious dispute between the recently formed Australian Cricket Board and a number of Australia’s top players. Captain Clem Hill came to blows over who should appoint the tour manager for the upcoming series. The resulting fracas and decision by the board saw Hill along with Warwick Armstrong, Tibby Cotter, Vernon Ransford, Hanson Carter and Victor Trumper all refuse to participate in the tour.

The England summer turned out to be partly ruined by the horrible weather, however an under strength Australian side managed to beat South Africa comfortably by 10 wickets at Lord’s.

It would be almost a century later before we saw another neutral Test match on English soil with Pakistan forced to move their home Test series against Australia in 2010 to the UK for security reasons.

Marcus North spun Australia to victory in the 1st Test at Lord’s claiming 6/55 in the second innings as the Aussies won by 150 runs. However, Pakistan hit back in the 2nd Test, rolling Australia for just 88 in the first innings at Headingley, to defeat them by 3 wickets.

Australia’s last Ashes Test match at Lord’s was in the 2015 series. After being beaten convincingly in the 1st Test at Cardiff, Australia levelled the series at Lord’s, thumping the home side by 405 runs. They were unable to take the momentum through the rest of the series, losing 3-2 in a hard fought contest.

The series in 2009 was the end of an incredible streak for Australia at the venue. England’s 115-run win in the 2nd Test, snapped a 75 year drought against Australia at Lord’s. It was the home sides first victory since spinner Hedley Verity claimed 15 wickets against an Australian side containing Sir Donald Bradman way back in 1934.