New Delhi: On this day 17 years ago, former West Indies batsman Brian Lara registered the highest ever individual score in the history of Test cricket which is still intact.
It was on April 12, 2004, when Lara went on to play an unbeaten knock of 400 runs against England in the final Test of the four-match series at the Antigua Recreation Stadium. He achieved the feat on the third day of the fourth Test against England.
Opting to bat first, Lara had come to the crease with West Indies at 98/2. Lara then went on to mesmerise everyone with his knock of 400 studded with 43 fours and four sixes. With the help of this knock, West Indies went on to register a massive 751/7 in the first innings.
With this innings, Lara broke the record of Australia’s Matthew Hayden for registering the highest individual score in Test cricket. Hayden had earlier played a knock of 380 runs against Zimbabwe in 2003. Co-incidentally, the left-handed Hayden had broken Lara’s record at that time after surpassing Windies’ batsman 375-run knock in 1994.
England was bowled out for 285 in their first innings, however, Michael Vaughan’s century in the second innings helped England to draw the match against the Windies.
Lara also holds the record for highest individual score ever in first-class cricket (501 not out). In 1994, playing for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston, Lara scored 501 not out.
Lara had announced his retirement from international cricket in 2007. He finished his career with 22,358 runs and 53 international centuries. He also shares the Test record of scoring the highest number of runs in a single over in a Test match.
The 51-year-old smashed South Africa’s Robin Peterson of South Africa for 28 runs in a single over in 2003.
The left-handed Lara played 131 Tests and 299 ODIs for West Indies. He managed to score 11,953 runs in the longest format of the game while he registered 10,405 runs in the 50-over format. (ANI)
