5 thrilling draws involving India affected by rain/bad light 

#4 Lord’s, London – 1971

Some action from India's first Test series win in England.

After a famous Test series win in West Indies, the Indian team led by Ajit Wadekar embarked England for a 3-Test series. Before the first Test began at the iconic Lord’s, India played as many as 8 practice (tour) matches – winning 5 and losing 1.

England batted first on a pitch which looked relatively hard and dry. However, the spin troika of Chandrasekhar, Bedi and Venkataraghavan relished the conditions as they picked up 9 wickets to restrict England to 304 and that too on the back of a late lower-order surge where John Snow scored a brilliant 73.

Those were the days where there existed a ‘Rest Day’ after the third day. Thus, going into the rest day India had managed to sneak a slender lead of 9 as they were bowled out for 313 (with Wadekar, Vishwanath and Solkar scoring fifties).

In the second innings, the spin troika bamboozled England again as they were bowled out for 191 setting India a tricky target of 183. Thus, India had a little more than 4 hours to overhaul the target and go 1-0 up in the series.

India began badly as they were reduced to 21/2, but a Gavaskar (53) and Farokh Engineer (35) steadied the ship, but the latter’s dismissal brought about a collapse as the visitors slipped to 145/8 at tea on the final day.

With 35 runs required, 2 wickets in hand and Solkar and Bedi at the crease, the game headed towards a thrilling finish. However, the rain had a final say as the final session was washed out and the game ended in a draw.