Published: Nov 21, 2015, 06:25 PM (IST)
Edited: Nov 21, 2015, 06:25 PM (IST)
Brian Lara is the name that terrorised the bowlers world over throughout the 90s and for the most part of 2000s. The master from the Caribbean had a vociferous appetite for huge scores. No wonder he holds the records for highest individual score in First-Class cricket (501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994) and in Test cricket (400 not out against England in 2004.)
With nine scores in excess of double hundred, Lara is third on the list of most double hundreds in Tests behind only Don Bradman and Kumar Sangakkara. The last of his double hundreds came in his career’s penultimate Test and ante-penultimate innings. It was also the last of his 34 Test hundreds and came during the second Test match from 2006 series between the West Indies and Pakistan with the latter being the hosts.
The venue for the game was Multan — famous for being Inzama-ul-Haq’s home ground and for Virender Sehwag’s triple ton. Pakistan won the toss and scored 357 after electing to bat first. In reply, West Indies scored 591 that included Lara’s fluent 262-ball 216. The swashbuckling southpaw slammed 22 fours and 7 maximums in the knock that came at a strike rate of over 82. Pakistan’s second innings was powered by Mohammad Yousuf’s 191 that pushed the game towards a draw — only one in the series.
The series was eventually won 2-0 by Pakistan. It was the trend throughout Lara’s career; he scored heavily and his team ended up losing most of the times. Same happened in this particular series as well. He capped-off his Test career in the last Test of the series with scores of 0 and 49. His fans turned nostalgic recently when they got to witness a vintage Lara, who showed up for Sachin’s Warriors in the Cricket All-Stars League in the United States of America (USA).
