Winners of the 1983 World Cup and 1985 World Championship of Cricket, India were one-day rockstars alright, but they were still struggling to find their feet in the Test arena when the Kapil Dev-captained team landed in England in the summer of 1986.

Having won just four of the 52 Tests they had played that far in the decade, India had the job of climbing the mountain from its steepest side given the challenging conditions that cricket in England posed. As captain, Kapil was still winless in Tests in 20 tries.

But then this was not the Indian team in which the new ball would be thrown to wicketkeeper Budhi Kunderan to bowl right-arm medium pace to get rid of the shine and prepare the cherry for the spinners. This was a side led by a pacer at his peak with able assistance from a wily Roger Binny and a young and exciting Chetan Sharma.

That England had their own problems - a shaky captain in David Gower and the absence of Ian Botham who was serving a two-month ban for admitting to smoking cannabis - perhaps worked in India's favour.

At Lord's, the venue of the first Test, Kapil won the toss and put England in. The hosts began well reaching Day I lunch on 81/1, then were shaken up post lunch by Sharma's pace, but finally recovering through Graham Gooch's 114 to finish the day on 245/5.

England's first innings ended on 294 on a slow Day II, which saw India score 83/1 from 51 overs. Things were better on the third day with Mohinder Amarnath scoring 69 and Dilip Vengsarkar etching his third century at Lord's, an unbeaten 126. That, along with a resolute 59-ball 6 from No.11 Maninder Singh, helped India take a 47-run lead.

Vengsarkar had a 38-run partnership with Maninder, but the amount of runs doesn't really speak of the significance of that innings. Recalling that vital stand, Vengsarkar told The Telegraph: 'In a previous Test, against Sri Lanka, I had a good partnership with Maninder and was batting on 98 when he got out, bowled. This time I was batting on 85 when he came in to bat. But this time he played well, we had a nice partnership. In Tests, it is important to take a good first innings lead to get that moral advantage. We had got the lead and the partnership helped us extend it. That turned out to be crucial for us.'

Things got better for India the following day with an inspired Kapil taking four wickets to bundle out England for 180 in their second innings. On the final day, June 10, India sniffed history with a paltry target of 134 before them. The road to victory turned bumpy when they were reduced to 78/4 and 110/5, but Kapil would not let this golden opportunity slip and finished things off in style - hitting Phil Edmonds for three fours and a six.

'When you chase low targets, there is always a pressure to not lose early wickets. But we lost initial wickets. However, some of us did enough to get us closer to the target, I made 33, and then Kapil played a very attacking innings to get us over the line,' Vengsarkar said.

Asked what he thought helped that Indian team conquer Lord's, the 'Colonel' said: 'We had a good all-round team then… if you see the performances right from the 1983 World Cup, it was a good steady graph. And from 1985-87 I think was the peak. All the teams were pretty good at that time, Australia, England, Pakistan... We gelled well as a team.'

Kapil was adjudged the Player of the Match, but there's no denying that it was Vengsarkar's knock in the first innings that laid the foundation. And Vengsarkar's liking for Lord's is no secret. 'There are always some special grounds where you get very positive vibes and you score more runs on those grounds. Lord's was one such for me. But in the end, it's very important to win matches, Test matches. You may score many runs in your life, but it is meaningless if your team loses. That way I'm very happy that I could score a century in that match and help my team win as well,' he said.

And what happened after the match? 'A lot of Indians were there and they were dancing below the Lord's balcony. There was champagne flowing in the dressing room as well. It was wonderful. It was a great achievement and we celebrated it,' a nostalgic Vengsarkar recounted.

That India would go on to win the second match, at Headingley, to win the three-Test series 2-0 was a bigger story, but having failed to win at Lord's in 10 previous attempts, this was a champagne moment for Indian cricket.