Sachin Tendulkar – India

None of the Tendulkar’s 99 international centuries have come at the home of cricket, where he has a top score of 37 in five Tests series. The foremost run scorer in Test record averages 21.66% at the venue, compared with a career mark of 56.68%, and has also not been on the winning team.

Sunil Gavaskar – India

India’s stick out opening batsman had a best effort of 59 in five Tests series at Lord’s soil from 1971 – 1986. Gavaskar passed 40 four times in ten innings but unsuccessful to go on and make a big score.

Shane Warne – Australia

The Australian leg-spinner plagued England throughout his career but, he was never on the losing team in 4 debuts at Lord’s, his best bowling records were 4-57. He record at the England ground is excellent, 19 wickets at an average of 19.57, but the control of Australia’s seamers at Lord’s during his career served to limit his chances for a five-wicket haul.

Muttiah Muralitharan – Sri Lanka

The leading wicket taker in history played just one of his 133 Tests cricket at Lord’s ground, claiming 3-158 in England’s only innings of a high-scoring draw in 2006 year. Muralitharan was injured for Sri Lanka’s trip four years prior and retired by the time his country returned in 2011.

Anil Kumble – India

The modern status of Lord’s as great spinner’s is confirmed by the India leg-spinner, who never took more than three wickets in an innings in three visits. Kumble’s Twelve wickets during those three matches cost 41 each.

Brian Lara – West Indies

The West Indies left-hander had a career average of 62.14 over England but in three Tests at Lord’s managed a top score of 54 in three overcomes. Lara is very much preferred St John’s, where he feasted on England’s bowlers to the tune of 375 and 400 not out – to St John’s Wood, London.

Ricky Ponting – Australia

The Australia all-time leading Test run scorer but failed to record even a half-century in four Lord’s Tests, three over England and one beside Pakistan. He has made four single-figure scores in 8 innings but at least had the consolation of being on the winning team 3 times and can return in 2013 for a fifth chance.

Curtley Ambrose – West Indies

The West Indian pace-man terrorized England throughout his career but hardly missed out on the honors board, twice taking 4 wickets. In common with Warne, his overall record at Lord’s is fabulous.

Mike Atherton – England

The England opener, a stronghold of the 1990s, failed to record a century in 15 Lord’s Tests. His nearest miss came in 1993 over Australia, when he slipped turning for a third and was run out for 99.

Jacques Kallis – South Africa

The South Africa leading all-rounder styled Lord’s twice, in 1998 and 2008 year, managing a combined 5 wickets and 20 runs. Kallis is still going hard in all forms of the match and like Ponting, he may yet get another opportunity.

Kapil Dev (434 wkts) and Anil Kumble (619 wkts) are the other two Indian bowlers to have accomplished the feat.

Playing his 96th match, Harbhajan got to the goal when he bowled Carlton Baugh on the second day of the third and final cricket Test series against the West Indies in the Caribbean.

Harbhajan Singh, who made his Test appearance over Australia in 1998 year, needed two wickets to reach the milestone at the start of this match, and seven at the start of the three-match Test cricket series.

The 31-year-old has 25 times five-wicket and 5 times ten-wicket pulls in the longest form of the matches.

Under MS Dhoni’s captaincy, Harbhajan has captured 111 wickets at an average of 31.83 in 26 Tests cricket series. The break-up of Harbhajan’s 400 wickets is 46 bowled, 14 stumped, 277 caught and 63 LBW.

Former Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan with 800 wickets, heads the Test cricket matches list.

Ishant Sharma has become the first Indian speedster to claim 20 wickets in a Test series in the West Indies, overtaking Kapil Dev’s tally of 18 in four Tests series in 1988-89.

Join us in congratulating the Indian off-spinner in the below comments…

Muttiah Muralitharan has announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket and he is representing Kochi Tuskers Kerala in the ongoing IPL 4. It is fault of Sri Lanka Cricket board; initially they permitted their player to play until May 20 by signing NOC and altered in now to May 5. Muttiah Muralitharan felt that there should be something wrong.

Muralitharan said that players would be depressed to leave back to home in the middle of IPL and they will be missing a lot. If SLC have informed players and IPL franchises, they could have better idea of the situation.

There is some roughness going in between these two boards, if Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is not going to support India they will miss a lot from India said Murali. If India is not touring Sri Lanka, they will be losing some money. More importantly India-Sri Lanka friendship will be affected negatively.

This is the first time in the cricket history that a nation won the World Cup in their home soil. Kapil Devils have lifted the trophy in 1983 at Lords and after India has reached finals of 2003 World cup, but finally Dhoni boys did it. A determined innings of Gautam Gambhir (97) and responsible captain innings of MS Dhoni (91*) beat out the ton of Mahela Jayawardene to achieve highest run chase in World Cup final.

The drama started from the toss as they tossed for the second time, Sri Lanka won the toss and went in to bat first. Sri Lanka has made huge changes in the playing eleven; they left out Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis, Angelo Mathews and Chamara Silva. Chamara Kapugedra, Nuwan Kulasekara, Suraj Randiv and Thisara Perera were included in the squad. India had made only one change Sreesanth came in place of injured Ashish Nehra.

Sri Lanka openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga had an unusual start as Indian bowlers right on the money for the word go and Indian fielders were throwing themselves all around the park. Sri Lanka hit their first boundary on their 30th ball in the innings. Tharanga (2) was unsettled by Zaheer Khan and went back to pavilion for brilliant catch by Sehwag at slips. Dilshan (33) looked clam was removed Harbhajan Singh. Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene consolidated the innings and Sanga fell short of two runs what could have been half century.

Jayawardene (103*) has manipulated the field and got his runs, scored magnificent century. Yuvraj got one referral decision right to dismiss Thilan Samaraweera (21). Kapugedra was dismissed by Zaheer Khan and equals the highest wicket taker Shahid Afridi in the tournament. Kulasekara (32) and Perera added precious runs in the powerplay overs; Sri Lanka had posed a good total of 274 runs in 50 overs for the loss of six wickets.

Dhoni played a gamble in picking up Sreesanth, but it didn’t work. Indian bowling attack, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh have taken two wickets each and Harbhajan Singh settled with one wicket.

India need 275 runs to win the World Cup, India had a disasters start to the innings by the loss of Sehwag without scoring a run. Soon Sachin Tendulkar (18) was edged one straight to keeper. Many of Indian fans have thought that India will lost the match, but well recovered by the help of two young guns Gambhir and Kholi.

Kholi (35) was dismissed to fantastic catch by Dilshan. MS Dhoni who promoted himself in the top order had played true captains’ knock and silenced critics. Gambhir (97) tried for extravagant short and bowled. Yuvraj and Dhoni completed the job for India; Dhoni hit the winning runs as they reached the ultimate glory.

Muttiah Muralitharan playing his last match has failed to perform due to his fitness issues. Lasith Malinga was the only bowler troubled Indian batsmen as he rewarded with two wickets. Perera and Dilshan bagged a wicket each.

MS Dhoni was awarded with Man of the match for his unbeaten knock of 91 and Yuvraj Singh was judged as Man of the Series for his 362 runs and 15 wickets.

This is the first time in the cricket history that two sub-continental nations are battling in the finals of a World Cup. Both the teams have won world cup final and lost one world cup. This is the third time that both these teams in the finals of World Cup.

The two sub-continental players are the toppers in the leading runs scorer list among the top six belonging to these teams. Tillakaratne Dilshan is the leading run scorer with 467 runs and followed by India’s master batsmen Sachin Tendulkar with 464 runs. Kumara Sangakkara, Upul Tharanga and Virender Sehwag are third, fourth and fifth position with 417, 393 and 380 runs respectively.

In the bowling department, Shahid Afridi is the leading wicket taker in the tournament with 21 wickets and the other sub-continental bowlers after him in the leading wickets takers list are Zaheer Khan and Muttiah Muralitharan. Zaheer Khan has taken 19 wickets and Muttiah Muralitharan has taken 15 wickets in the World Cup 2011 so far.

Coming to overall stats India and Sri Lanka met seventeen times where Sri Lanka leads with eight wins, India have won seven and two ended without any result. In all the World Cups, Sachin is the leading run scorer with 2260 runs with six hundreds and fifteen fifties. Muttiah Muralitharan is three wickets away in equaling the Glenn McGrath record of highest wickets. Murali announced the retirement from the international cricket aiming to finish his career on a high note. Sachin Tendulkar dream is yet too filed his one and only dream is to win World Cup for his country.

The milestones that can be achieved in the finals of ICC World Cup 2011 between India and Sri Lanka, Sachin Tendulkar is one run shot of reaching 500 runs against Sri Lanka. Sachin is also eying for his 100th international century in the finals at his home ground. Muralitharan will be desperate to play with hamstring and knee injury and pick up three wickets to equal highest wickets in all World Cups.

The young and talented Indian batsman, Virat Kohli is 81 runs behind of his 2000 runs in one day internationals. Zaheer Khan is only two wickets away to be the highest wicket taker in the ICC World Cup 2011. Sachin Tendulkar and Tillakaratne Dilshan are competing to reach 500-run mark in the World Cup.

The umpires for the ICC World Cup 2011 finals are Simon Taufel and Aleem Dar, who are the outstanding umpires from past years were appointed. Simon Taufel was not able to part of finals of World Cup being an Aussie and Australia is in the finals for last three World Cups. Simon Taufel was elected as best umpire from 2004 to 2007 and Aleem Dar was the umpire of the year in 2009 and 2010.

The two finalists, India and Sri Lanka will be playing there third finals of World Cup. India have played two times in World Cup finals with one loss and one win and Sri Lanka also played two finals lost one and won one. Kapil Dev and Arjuna Ranatunga are the World Cup winning captains for their countries. Sourav Ganguly and Mahela Jayawardene are the ones who captained their sides in way to finals of World Cup but rattled by Australia in 2003 and 2007 World Cups.

In 1983 World Cup, India were emerged as winners defeating West Indies. West Indies was in supreme form that time eying for their third successive World Cup, but their dream was vanished by Kapil Devils. The Indian team have shocked entire cricket world with the monumental victory. In 2003 World Cup, India were going through their peak and had a successful tournament. India has lost only two matches in the tournament to same opposition one in pool stages and the other one in the finals. Australia defeated India and crowned the World Championship.

In 1996 World Cup, Sri Lanka emerged as winners by defeating the Australia. Arjuna Ranatunga led the side there has been lot of batsmen who won the matches for them, Aravinda de Silva fine knock in the finals and Sanath Jayasurya has played beautifully throughout the tournament. In 2007 World Cup, Sri Lanka faced defeat against Australia and Aussie grabbed trophy for third time in a row. The finals of 2007 World Cup had came under lot of criticism as it was held in the dim light with having reserve day.

Sachin Tendulkar who has five World Cups so far failed to conquer the trophy. He is playing in his sixth one and eying for the trophy as it is unfulfilled dream of India’ s master batsmen Sachin Tendulkar. MS Dhoni said to his teammates that they should win the World Cup for Sachin and gift it to him for his services to the country. Tendulkar is the most successful batsmen in the overall World Cups with scoring 2260 with 6 centuries and 15 half centuries.

Muttiah Muralitharan who announced his retirement after the world cup will be playing his last match in the finals of ICC World Cup 2011. Muttiah Muralitharan is only three wickets away to become leading wicket taker in the World Cups. Glenn McGrath is on the top of the table with 71 wickets, Murali has been part of 1996 Sri Lanka World Cup winning team.

India will face Sri Lanka in the finals of ICC World Cup 2011 Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on April 2, 2011.

Sri Lanka lost the finals of World Cup 2007 in a controversial manner, where Australia was celebrated their third Consecutive World Cup win. Australia has defeated all the sub continent teams in last three world cup finals. Australians are the World Champions and every team will play their tail up against them. Sri Lanka is very desperate to win over Australia said Muralitharan.

Australia has the upper hand over Sri Lanka; both the teams have played 72 ODIs in which Sri Lanka have won only 23 matches. Muttiah Muralitharan is playing in his fourth World Cup and it is the final one. Australian batsmen are able to handle spinners on the sub continent pitches, but newly laid wicket at Premadasa Stadium will provide some assistance to spinners at the same it would be batting friendly.

Murali feels that the Sri Lanka and Australia fight might not be a high scoring game. If the team is really batting well they can score 300 runs, but in the Indian small grounds and fast outfield 350 runs is easily achievable. In Sri Lankan conditions 280 to 290 is a wining total.

Muttiah Muralitharan will retire from international cricket after World Cup; he announced his retirement from Test cricket in July last year. Muralitharan holds the record of 800 Test wickets and 513 one day international wickets.

Last month, Pakistan cricketers, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for accepting money to bowl no balls in a Test Match against England. Talking about the news, Muttiah Muralitharan says that ICC will take necessary steps to put check to corruption.

The 38-years-old, Muttiah Muralitharan retired from Test cricket in July, 2010. He confirmed that he will be available for the upcoming one day tour of Australia. He expressed his wish to play in 2011 World Cup.