Records are set to be broken, but the cricket has witnessed, for the first time in its history, a batsman crowning twice with the title of highest individual run-getter in the Test cricket. The batsman is none other than West India captain Brian Charlse Lara who hammered his career best unbeaten swashbuckling 400 against England on March 12 at Antigua.
Left-hander Lara, who proved his greatness in batting, broke the record of Australian left hander Mathew Hayden, who made 380 at Perth against Zimbabwe, surpassing Lara's highest individual Test score of 375 against England at St John's in 1993-94. But Lara deprive of Hayden of his title of world's top scorer just after six months, proving his supremacy with the willow. He has the honour of setting set the world record of highest individual score twice.
Lara is the second batsman after Australia's Don Bradman to score 300 or more runs twice. Bradman could not outshine his highest score when he made second triple hundred, whereas Lara not only did it, but also became the first batsman to score an undefeated quadruple hundred.
A demoralised West Indies, who were defeated in the first three Test matches by England and were determined to win the fourth one for a whitewash, but Lara shattered their dreams and demolished the English bowling attack mercilessly.
In the process of scoring 400 runs, Lara established two big partnerships. First with Ramnaresh Sarawan, he put on 232 runs for the third wicket and then with Ridley Jacobs for a 282-run unfinished fifth wicket partnership.
In today's cricket there are a number of batsmen, who are continuously double and triple hundres, but a quadruple century by Lara will remain a dream for any batsman to reach landmark set by the West Indian captain.
Pakistan's Hanif Mohammad was first to set a record of highest Test scorer -337 runs -- against West Indies at Bridgetown in 1957-58, but in the same match West Indies Gary Sober has broken his record by scoring 365.
While India's Virender Sehwag has scored 309 against Pakistan in the second Test at Multan, Pakistan's Inzamam-ul-Haq is second batsman after Hanif Mohammad to 329 against New Zealand at Lahore in 2001-02 series.
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