Brian Charles Lara, the former West Indian player, holds numerous batting records against his name. He has scored a total of 53 International centuries of which 34 tests centuries and 19 are ODI centuries. He made his test and ODI debut on 6 December 1990 vs.Pakistan and 9 November 1990 vs. Pakistan respectively.
He also shares the best record (with George Bailey) to score highest runs off an over by scoring 28 runs off an over by Robin Peterson of South Africa in 2003. He is the only batsman to score 500 plus runs in an inning in the history of first-class cricket.
Now let us have a look on top 5 innings of Brian Lara in International Cricket:-
– by Rishita Patnaik
1. 400* WI vs. ENG, 2004
In April 2004, Brian Lara set the highest individual score of 400 not out in the history of International cricket in 4th test against England at St. John’s. Please note the ‘not out’.
He faced 582 deliveries which included 43 fours and 4 sixes. Before getting to 400, Lara was dropped at 359 by debutant wicketkeeper Geraint Jones which appeared to be a nick down the leg side. The match ended in a draw. This is still the highest ever score by an individual in test cricket which seems to be almost unsurpassable.
2. 153* WI vs. AUS, 1999
In the third test against Australia in 1999 at Barbados, Lara made a contribution of an unbeaten 153 runs and it stands to be a special one in the Windies cricket history. In this encounter, Lara walked out onto the field when West Indies were 78/3 down and were chasing 308 runs to win.
Australian bowling attack had big names in it like Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Stuart McGill. Wickets fell in quick succession. At a stage, Windies were 8 down and needed 63 runs to win. Then Lara took up the responsibility to finish the game for the team and hence tried to retain the strike as much as possible. With Lara’s bold efforts and sensible partnerships, West Indies won the game by one wicket and this stood as a special knock because Windies cricket was experiencing a downfall at that time.
3. 375, WI vs. ENG, 1994
In 1994 at St.John’s, Lara scored a brilliant knock of 375 off 538 balls against England in the fifth test of England’s tour of WI which was almost on to set a world record but couldn’t. On that day, he surpassed the record of Garry Sobers’ record of 365 for the highest test innings.
Everyone was overjoyed with his achievement but his teammates were not having any surprised expressions because they knew that only he could break this kind of record and there is nothing surprising in it. He had batted for 766 minutes and scored 375 runs (which included 45 fours) with a strike rate of 69.70. The match ended in a draw.
4. 213, WI vs. AUS, 1999
In 1999 at Kingston, Lara scored a splendid 213 runs off 344 balls in the 2nd test of Australia’s tour of WI. Before this test, when WI toured South Africa, WI faced a humiliating loss to the hosts and the whole team was reprimanded by their country people brutally for consistent defeats.
Because of such results, there were no high expectations from the team to the crowd. Hence every game to be played later was to fight for pride and to get back the confidence. In this test, Lara and Adams made major contributions of 213 and 94 runs respectively and helped WI to score 431 in the second innings of the test after Australia were bowled out for a low total of 256. WI won this match by 10 wickets and this win by a huge margin helped the Windies to gain the confidence back.
5. 277, WI vs. AUS, 1993
In 1993 at the Sydney Cricket, Lara scored a brilliant 277 runs off 372 balls in the 3rd test of WI’s tour of Australia. This was the third test of the series where WI was 0-1 down already. Australia posted a mammoth total of 503/9d and on day two WI were 24/1. The next day Lara entered the field after the second wicket fell and a splendid innings was underway. Brian Lara scored 277 runs in his innings before he was run-out. He scored at a strike rate of 74.46 and his score of 277 runs consisted of 38 fours. However, the match ended in a draw. His ability to convert his centuries into bigger scores was phenomenal and he is a legend.
– by Rishita Patnaik