Brian Charles Lara, widely regarded as the classiest stroke player of all time. Brain Lara was the most elegant player of his time, Australian Pacer Brett Lee once said that “Lara could hit the exact same ball in 12 different directions.” A born match winner, Lara had the ability to single handedly win matches from the most difficult positions.
When talking about Lara’s best knocks the 400* against England is the first that comes to mind but Lara has played more important and match winning knocks and that too under immense pressure
Brain Lara in Australia's tour of West Indies-
Australia travelled to West Indies in 1999 for 4 tests and 7 ODIs. Steve Waugh was appointed the Test Captain for the first time following the retirement of Mark Taylor. West Indies on their first tour of South Africa in the post-apartheid era had suffered their first 5–0 Test whitewash and lost the ODI series 6–1. Brian Lara led a player revolt against the WICB. Subsequently Lara was stripped as a captain but later the board gave him the armband before the tour.
In the first Test West Indies were bowled out for 51 in the last innings hence losing the match by 312 runs. As a captain Lara was under immense pressure after an abysmal run of form although the batsman Lara scored a fighting 62 in the first innings.
Double century in the 2nd Test -
Australia posted 256 runs on the board after electing to bat first in reply both Suruj Ragoonath and Lincoln Roberts got out for a duck then Lara walked in to bat at number 4. The left hander scored 213 runs of 344 balls hitting 29 fours and 3 sixes. His partnership of 322 with Jimmy Adams helped West Indies post 431 in the second innings. West Indies won the Test Match having to chase a mere 3 runs. Lara's knock was considered one of the best of his career consisting of brilliant stroke play and some hard hitting and aggressive batting. Experts and fans around the world stated that the West Indies captain might not play a better knock than this one. Nevertheless Brain Lara proved them wrong in the very next match.
Single handedly winning the 3rd Test match-
Australia again elected to bat first and scored a mammoth first innings total of 490 runs. In reply the Hosts could only manage 329 with Sherwin Cambell scoring a hundred. Courtney Walsh took 5 wickets in the 3rd innings to restrict the Aussies to 146 runs. Chasing 308 runs the West Indies openers got off to a great start but Gillespie, Macgill and McGrath got 3 quick wickets one of which was the night watchmen Pedro Collins. West Indies were 78 for 3 when Lara came in at no.5 which soon became 105 for 5. Australia looked set to win the game but the windies captain had other plans. Lara went from 50 to 100 in 51 delivers. Jimmy Adams provided solid support as he batted for 3 hours scoring 38 runs. Things swung back in West Indies favour, but then disaster struck just before tea. Glenn McGrath took 3 wickets in no time to get the Aussies back in business. West Indies needed 54 runs to win in the last season and only 3 wickets in hand. Lara brilliantly negotiated along with the tail to win the match by 1 wicket. Mark Nicholas described Lara's innings by saying to " He was toying with the field, the Australian fielders would move 2 yards to the side and he would place the ball exactly 2 yards away from them. It was just brilliant". Lara's 153* was rated the second-best innings in the history of Test cricket by Wisden.
Speaking about these two innings Lara said that the double hundred was better given the immense pressure not having won the last 6 matches. The innings was a but Mark Nicholas stated that " The 153* was the greater batting performance for just the purity of the innings, it was absolutely perfect."
