ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH: The 400 man
From GARTH WATTLEY in Antigua
Trinidad Express
April 13, 2004
The West Indies captain is greeted by teammates while passing through an arch of bats at lunch break after beating the world's highest score in Test cricket.
The singing, swaying bodies in the Chickie Posse section of the West Indies Oil stand were certain of that fact.
He can't walk on water or turn water into wine, but with a cricket bat in his hands, wonders never cease for Brian Charles Lara. And as the clock ticked over to 11.45 yesterday morning at the Antigua Recreation Ground, Lara completed another feat for the ages.
Sweeping Gareth Batty so precisely that Graeme Thorpe standing at short fine leg could not reach the ball, Lara got a boundary that put him back into the history books big time.
On the very same ground on which as a precocious 24-year-old he had established a new record for Test cricket's highest-ever individual total almost ten years ago to the week, the West Indies captain, now a battle-hardened 34, broke new ground at 384, a total he boldly later stretched to 400 not out (43 fours, four sixes).
Gone, in just six months, was Australian Matthew Hayden's mark of 380 which had bested Lara's own 375. In its place is a total only the truly gifted will ever get near. That knowledge, the deep satisfaction of what he had achieved, left Lara's face with a glow that not even his exertions on another extended day's play could erase.
Not only had he become Test cricket's first 400 man, and the first to ever hold the world record twice, but his epic effort has also given his team a solid chance of a morale-boosting win in this fourth and final Cable & Wireless Test match.
On a pitch on which his bowlers could get just five wickets, and none at all yesterday, England captain Michael Vaughan saw the West Indies pacers snare his top five for just 98, before not out batsmen Andrew Flintoff (37) and debutant wicketkeeper batsman Geraint Jones brought some stability with their unbroken sixth wicket stand of 73.
Now Vaughan must contemplate the possibility of following-on at 171 for five, chasing 751, and more importantly a follow-on target of 552.
It is a mighty ask with the West Indians in this mood.
Bowling fast and accurately, Tino Best (two for 20), Fidel Edwards (one for 44) and his brother Pedro Collins (two for 37) performed like men inspired. And there was but one source for their inspiration.
Leading in the best way he knows, Lara lifted his depleted side with a mind-boggling display of concentration and character.
In his 13 hours and two-and-a-half days at the crease, he re-defined for them, and world cricket, the benchmark by which batting excellence is to be measured. He showed that skill and experience, courage and will power can hold back the advancing years. As on the previous two days, Lara went about his work methodically. Boundaries were a bonus, not a necessity. Of the 87 runs he added to his overnight 313 yesterday, slightly less than half of them-42-came in boundaries.
And with his resolute wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs giving his usual muscular support with his third Test century (107 not out, eight fours, three sixes) in an all-time West Indies sixth wicket record stand of 282, the question was not if, but when the record would come. Almost everything happened before lunch. A couple from off-spinner Batty took Lara to 350. And steadily thereafter, history was re-written again:
365-Len Hutton is passed and he's level with Sobers again.
374-Lara is on the brink of his own previous best.
The Antigua police begin to circle the ground. The would-be stormers are at the ready to defy them.
Bodow!
Down the pitch Lara chips to stroke Batty into the Sir Viv Richards Pavilion for six.
Lara draws level with Hayden at 380. And then the sweep into history.
Once, twice, he skipped into the air, punching it. He engaged the faithful Jacobs in a long embrace, before a successful invader broke them up. New Antigua Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer came out to shake hands.
Later, Lara would hear personally from Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his golfing friend, South African Ernie Els, ranked number three in the world and who finished second in the US Masters on Sunday.
In the stands, West Indian joy knew no bounds. Many of the fans had seen the 375, now they were seeing 400.
That landmark eventually arrived at 1.14 p.m. when he turned Batty behind square for a single. "Our wounds are healed" read a sign in the crowd.
Steve Harmison, England's key bowler and Lara's chief tormentor earlier in this series, had been forced to watch the final rites, having been debarred from bowling by the umpires for thrice running on the pitch. But he shared in the applause and warm handshakes.
He must have had a hard time, though, coming to terms with the transformation of the man who had managed just 100 runs in six previous innings, and who in a single knock had boosted that tally to an even 500, almost surely saved his side from an unprecedented home whitewash, and quelled, for the moment, rising discontent over his captaincy.
Harmison had seen genius. And yesterday, its name was Brian Lara.