The Prince's hat-trick for the ages
published:
Sunday | May 25, 2008
Tony Becca, FROM THE BOUNDARY
EVER SINCE W. G. Grace, the big English man, the famous doctor with the long, white beard, strolled on to a cricket field with a bat in his hand in the middle of the 19th century, there have been some great batsmen.
They have included Jack Hobbs of England, Wally Hammond of England, Victor Trumper of Australia, Don Bradman of Australia, George Headley of the West Indies, Sunil Gavaskar of India, Gary Sobers of the West Indies and, of course, Viv Richards of the West Indies.
These are some of the batsmen who have not only thrilled the world with their exciting strokeplay, but who are also numbered among those, the very few, whose deeds, like Bradman's average of 99.94 or his 300 runs in a day, sometimes sound like fairy tales.
One of the few, the very few who were blessed with exciting strokeplay and the ability to perform great deeds was Brian Lara - the former West Indies captain, the left-hander who is sometimes, and probably justifiably so, called a genius, the West Indies master and the 'Prince' of Port-of-Spain in Trinidad and Tobago.
In a career which spanned 16 years and 131 Test matches, Lara scored 11,953 runs at an average of 52.88. He also scored 34 Test centuries, including the once world record 375 and the standing world record of 400 not out.
Laura
better performances
As great as those two innings were, however, as epic as they may have been, three of Lara's centuries - against Australia in 1999, were better performances.
In my opinion they were better, not only because of the quality of the opposition, but also because of the state of the matches, the command, the dominance, the strokeplay and the brilliance he paraded on all three occasions.
At Sabina Park, after the West Indies were routed for 51 and destroyed by 312 runs in the first Test and after Australia had been dismissed for 256, the West Indies were reeling at five for two when Lara joined the action. They were soon 34 for four when Jimmy Adams joined him, and together they beat back the Australians with Lara against Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill, scoring 213 before he was dismissed at 378 for five after batting for 469 minutes, facing 344 deliveries, stroking 28 fours, and hitting three sixes - two off MacGill and one off Warne.
Apart from allowing the West Indies to level the series, it was an innings of sheer quality and beauty and yet it was nothing compared to his performance in the following Test match at Kensington Oval.
great recovery
At Kensington, with Australia scoring 490 and 146, with the West Indies scoring 329 and left 308 to win the Test match, the home team was 78 for three when Lara arrived and went on to score 153 not out in 353 minutes while facing 256 deliveries and stroking 20 boundaries - 19 fours and a pulled six off Warne.
Most importantly, however, the Windies were 248 for eight - 60 runs from victory, when Curtly Ambrose strolled out to the middle.
In one of the greatest recoveries ever, in probably Lara's greatest innings ever, the little man took complete charge of the game and when Ambrose was finally sent packing at 302 for nine, only six were needed when last man Courtney Walsh took his guard.
riding high
From one down to one up with one to go, the West Indies were riding high and with the fourth and last Test match scheduled for the Antigua Recreation Ground, it was a good bet, based on the reputation of the pitch, that the match would end in a draw with the West Indies winning the series 2-1.
That, however, was not to be and, despite a truly brilliant innings from Lara, Australia won by 176 runs.
In contrast to Australia's captain Steve Waugh who, batting at number five, scored 72 not out in 310 minutes off 166 deliveries while leading his team to 303, Lara, going to bat at 20 for two and taking 13 deliveries to get off the mark, blasted 100 runs off 82 deliveries with 15 fours and three sixes - the second 50 coming off 21 deliveries before he was dismissed at 136 for three.
To many West Indians, Lara's innings cost the West Indies the match. To them, it was too fast. To me, however, and especially remembering that there were 10 other players on the team, it was simply a stunning, unforgettable performance by a man who probably was tired, mentally and physically, after his epic performances in the two previous Test matches.
