InMobi

Happy birthday, Brian: Six of the best

On his 48th birthday, we look back at half a dozen of Lara's finest Test innings

277 v Australia, Sydney, January 1993

The summer previous, Australians had been treated to an Indian teenager named Sachin Tendulkar, who posted hundreds in Sydney and Perth to announce himself as the leading batsman of generation next. Twelve months later, a young man named Brian Lara decided the Little Master wasn't going to have that title all to himself. The 23-year-old from Trinidad had made fifties in his second, third and fourth Tests, and by the fifth he was ready to go large. And not for the last time. Lara's dancing feet came to the fore on a Sydney track that favoured spin, the brilliant left-hander stepping back or scooting forward time and again to Greg Matthews, Shane Warne and Allan Border as he aggressively set the tone of the Windies' response to Australia's first-innings 503. His century came from 125 balls and left Richie Richardson, his senior counterpart in the middle, in awe. "I can hardly remember my hundred," Richardson said afterwards. "It was difficult playing and being a spectator at the same time." Lara carried on, and on, maintaining his scoring rate as the spokes of his wagon wheel extended all around the ground, against pace and spin, with 38 boundaries dotting the SCG fence. It remains the highest score in Australia – West Indies Tests. "For sheer crisp hitting of the ball into the gaps, it was as good as you'd ever see," said Border, summing up the feeling of all who had watched the arrival of one of the greats.

The Lara legend is born

375 v England, St John's, April 1994

Lara's feats in Sydney proved just the first in his catalogue of classics. Not since Bradman had a batsman gone so consistently large with his centuries, and even the Don was left in Lara's wake when he eclipsed countryman Sir Garfield Sobers to own the world record score. Sobers had been there in Sydney, and he was on hand again in Antigua when the precocious 24-year-old, whose remarkable gifts had been evident since he was a teen, batted his way to glory. Against an England side 3-1 down in the series and on a batsman's paradise of a pitch, Lara batted for more than two days to go where no Test player had gone before. At stumps on day one, he was 164. Twenty-four hours later, he was 320. With the record on his mind, Lara was reportedly up early on day three, working his way through nine holes of golf as a distraction. He returned to the ground and, with the support of 19-year-old Shivnarine Chanderpaul at the other end, collected the 46 runs he needed for the record. The crowd stormed the field in celebration and, when they cleared, Lara bent down to the ground and kissed the turf. Sobers had predicted the Trinidadian prodigy would be the man to break his record, and so it proved.

213 v Australia, Kingston, April 1999

Image Id: B1D3B1C510504C36BE45E396A298FE81 Image Caption: Lara pulls during his epic 213 at Sabina Park // Getty

West Indian commentary doyen Tony Cozier summed it up best at the time. "In its context, with due deliberations and apologies to George Headley, Sir Garry Sobers and a host of other greats, I cannot identify a single innings by any West Indian batsman in our 71 years of Test cricket of such significance," he wrote. And so it was. The happenings over the preceding months brings the importance of Lara's epic to light: West Indies had been hammered five-nil in South Africa – a tour that Lara had almost not taken part in due to a pay dispute; and they'd just been skittled for 51 in the series opener against Australia in Port-of-Spain, Lara's home town. The 29-year-old remained on probation from the South Africa series, and rumours circulated that he wouldn't play the second Test in Jamaica, such was the state he found himself in following his recent tribulations. It seemed only West Indies cricket was in a worse state than Lara himself, but a respectable showing on day one reduced Australia to 256 all out and gave all in the Caribbean just an ounce of hope. Lara responded in majestic fashion the following day, single-handedly turning the fortunes of his side – and all cricket lovers in the Caribbean – with his first Test hundred in almost two years. Across eight hours he took the Australians apart, stroking 29 sublime fours and three sixes in his 213 to reignite the series. Australia folded for 177 in their second innings, and Test cricket was alive once again in the Caribbean.

153no v Australia, Bridgetown, March 1999

Ten days later in Bridgetown, lightning struck again. With the series deadlocked at one-all, Australia took a 160-run lead into the second innings. Courtney Walsh led a valiant West Indian riposted that had Australia skittled for 146 in difficult conditions, but still the challenge was immense; could this West Indies team, who had lost six straight Tests up until only a week or two earlier, chase 308 against an Australia attack boasting four trump cards in Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill? At 3-85 at stumps on day four, it appeared highly improbable. But with Lara, there was hope. The Windies' hero in Jamaica was two not out overnight and quickly showed he was ready to relive the role in Barbados, though at 5-105 early on the final day it appeared the task might be beyond even him. Lara, however, refused to be cowed. He took on the Australians and, with the odd stroke of luck and no end of brilliance, took his team to a stirring, unforgettable victory with just one wicket in hand. Steve Waugh called it the best Test he had played in, while Wisden later ranked Lara's unbeaten 153 as the second-best Test innings of the 20th century. 

Mix Tape: The brilliant Brian Lara

221 & 130 v Sri Lanka, Colombo, December 2001

It takes a special talent to master Muthiah Muralidaran in his own backyard, and Lara was most definitely that; in four Tests in Sri Lanka, he scored three hundreds, averaged 100.85 and showed why once again he was one of the best players of a turning ball in Test history. In Colombo on this occasion, Lara became the first (and only) batsman to score twin hundreds in a Test against the record-breaking off-spinner, batting for more than 11 hours and scoring more than half his team's runs in the match as the struggling Windies succumbed to a 10-wicket defeat and a series whitewash. Lara, however, stood apart, as he so often did. "I've never seen anyone dominate bowlers the way he has," Kumar Sangakkara, who played in that match, told cricket.com.au. "Sir Viv did, Ricky Ponting did at times, but Brian did it with a certain sense of style, and a level of destruction that was awe-inspiring. Everyone in our team enjoyed watching him bat; not necessarily that we liked it, but there was no getting away from the fact that we were seeing something we'd never seen before and never seen since. That amount of domination against Murali, turning the ball, at that level of his bowling, and to watch Lara dominate that attack, it was incredible."

Kumar Sangakkara names his batting GOAT

216 v Pakistan, Multan, November 2006

Image Id: 27298E96A5094C26BD73D5312F135789 Image Caption: Lara celebrates his double century in Multan // Getty

Lara's last Test hundred, in his penultimate match, was fitting in two ways: it was a classic illustration of how to play slow bowling; and it was big. Lara had plundered the Pakistanis to all parts a year earlier, making 130 in Bridgetown and 153 in Jamaica, and little changed when he visited the subcontinent. In Lahore, he stroked a stunning double of 61 and 122 in a losing cause, but he went one better in Multan, making 216 from 262 balls with 22 fours and two sixes. Lara had two wait until day three for his chance to bat but when he did, he wasted little time, racing to a century before lunch and from just 77 balls. The chief victim of the extraordinary assault was leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, who Lara took particular delight in lacing over extra cover repeatedly. One Kaneria over cost 26 runs – still the equal-fourth most expensive in Test history – as the lethal leftie advanced and took the leggie for 4,0,6,6,6,4 with a series of devastating blows. In that brief period, Kaneria bowled 29 deliveries to Lara for 60 runs. Typically, the West Indian kicked on, easing the scoring rate but dominating the contest as only he could. The match finished drawn but a 37-year-old Lara had proven he still had the gifts of his youth. Kaneria, meanwhile, was taking the positives. "He is such a great batsman that it is an exciting challenge for me to bowl to him," he said. "I don't think getting hit by the world's No.1 batsman is a failure on my part. I am actually happy that a player as great as Lara hits me around. I learn from that but he has hit everyone from around the world."