Brian Lara reckons England didn’t want to bowl at him the second time he broke Test cricket’s record score.
West Indies legend Lara, whose unbeaten 400 at the Rec in Antigua 21 years ago remains the highest individual innings after South Africa’s stand in captain Wiaan Mulder declared on 367 not out versus Zimbabwe last week, had gone into the final match of the series concerned that a 3-0 scoreline in favour of England might become a whitewash.
‘When I got to 100, I realised that (Steve) Harmison, who was the most dangerous, didn’t want to bowl much. If you look at the stats, he was the only one who didn’t go for 100, he came off at 92,’ said Lara.
‘You really think I was thinking about getting to towards 400? No chance! I get 100, you get a double, I look at the bowling attack and you can tell the guys don’t really want to turn up.’
Lara – who first broke the record by hitting 375 on the same ground, in the corresponding fixture 10 years earlier, and was briefly overtaken by Australia’s Matthew Hayden – played in the pre Twenty20 era, meaning he did not attempt to master modern strokes like the reverse sweep, for which Ben Duckett has gained notoriety.
‘At the end of the day, I had enough shots to survive – I look at guys like Virat Kohli and they don’t have much of that,’ Lara told the Overlap and Betfair’s Stick To Cricket show.
‘I would be one of those players who, instead of doing reverse sweeps over third-man, would hit over extra cover.’
Lara, 56, scored his Test runs quicker than any of the top 20 run getters in history, despite playing in an era of prolific bowlers.
But he is in no doubt who the best of the lot was – Australian Shane Warne, who finished his career with 708 Test victims.
‘I’d go out to bat against Muttiah Muralitharan, and I was confused,’ he said.
‘He gave me more pressure than Shane, but I’d walk out to bat against Shane and the ball would be coming off the middle and about 2-3pm he just produced this magical delivery or spell.
‘That’s why I rate him higher, because I think he was mentally stronger. With his bowling attack and the pitches he bowled on which favoured the fast bowlers, for him to pick up that number of wickets is very special.’
Stick to Cricket will be released on a weekly basis, featuring Michael Vaughan, Sir Alasdair Cook, David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd and Phil ‘Tuffers’ Tufnell, and occasional special guests joining them
