Date-stamped : 13 May94 - 20:10 England in West Indies, Test 5, 16-21 Apr 94 (Rest 19 Apr) St.John's Recreation Ground, Antigua ====> Day 3, 18 Apr 94 The first 3 days of the 5th C&W test has so far been dominated by the achievement of a single individual - Brian Charles Lara. The achievement - attaining the HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL score in a single test innings by a batsman. At about 11.46AM local time, he surpassed the then highest score of Sir Garfield St. Auburn Sobers of 365n.o., with a pull thru midwicket for 4 to take him to 369*.He punched the air and was embraced by his partner, Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Despite the efforts of the local police, there was a huge crowd invasion. Sobers, who had calmly moved to the edge of the boundary when Lara equalled the world record, strode to the middle to congratulate the man who was now the record holder. Sobers record, which had withstood a few serious challenges, finally sucummbed after standing for 36 yrs. The WI team for this test was sporting a new look with both Haynes and Richardson out due to injuries. In their places were Phil Simmons and newboy Stuart Williams from Nevis. Williams did not last long, playing a millionaire's hookshot and being caught. 11 for 1. The WI was soon in further trouble when Simmons registered YET ANOTHER failure!! 12 for 2. From the outset, it was clear that the criticisms that were hurled in Lara's direction after the defeat at the hands of England in B'dos had hit home. He buckled to BUILDING an innings and played very watchfully, not taking any chances. He unleashed those patented drives only when he got a bad delivery. Lara and Adams kept the scoreboard ticking over with singles and twos and the odd boundary. When Lara reached 50, he shifted gears and by the time he had reached 80 he was in OVERDRIVE. Adams, who had been playing in his own watchful style, suddenly came to life by hitting Hick for 2 consecutive 6s - the first straight overhead and the other over long-on which must have gone 10 rows back into the crowd. But the spotlight was on Lara. He was now playing some remarkable shots - pulling the ball from outside the offstump to the midwicket boundary and those booming cover drives that has been the hallmark of his batting. I was particularly impressed with one shot - a straight drive off the backfoot. Anyone who has played any type of cricket knows how hard it is to straight drive off the backfoot. He rocked back and with that free swing of the bat he cracked the ball straight back for 4. His follow thru and the placement of the feet were so reminiscent of the great Gary Sobers. In fact, if you had taken a picture of this stroke and compared it to that of Sobers I would wager that with the exception of the face and height, they were IDENTICAL. In his knock of 240 odd for the Rest of the World against Australia an innings that Sir Don Bradman called the greatest innings he has ever seen (and he must have seen some and also played a few), Sir Don describes this EXACT stroke Sobers-style that the great man hit off none other than Dennis Lillee. What was remarkable about this backfoot stroke was that it was played to a ball WELL PITCHED UP!! Do bear in mind that this was BEFORE Lillee's back injury. The significance of this comparison was not to dawn on me until the next day! Lara brought up his 100 by pulling Tuffnel to the midwicket boundary. Meantime, Adams reached 50 (another fine innings by him) but fell when he had reached 59 and with the score on 191. Arthurton joined Lara, who was in a very punishing mood. The juggernauth named Lara just kept rolling on reaching 150 with a flick to leg. He was in such dominant form that when the 100 partnership with Arthurton came up, Arthurton's contribution was a MERE 26. In fact, the innings by Arthurton was dour, defensive and at times, downright BORING. He had a hand injury and would have served the WI's purpose well if he had retired hurt. As it was, he continued with Lara feeling the pressure to score quickly. Luckly he did so with ease. In one over, Lara had struck Lewis for 2 fours and Lewis responded with a lifter and followed up with mouthing off to Lara. Lara responded by putting him away to the ropes!! He reached 200 by turning Lewis to leg. While his 1st 100 came off 180 deliveries, his second 100 came up in JUST 131 deliveries!! He lost Arthurton caught behind off Caddick (there is justice after all!!). In came Chanderpaul and Boycott felt that England has a chance to restrict the flow of runs with Chanderpaul at the crease since in all the innings so far, Chander has been under pressure - first his debut and then pulling the WI out of trouble. Boy, how WRONG he was! Chander came out obviously looking to get it on and before the rains came, Cozier said that Chander was matching Lara SHOT FOR SHOT!! In fact before the rain, Lara scored 31 (since Chander came in) with 4 4s while Chanderpaul scored 28 with 5 boundaries!! He pointed to a particular shot off the pads saying that Lara has played a lot of shots but NONE BETTER than that by Chander. Just when the 2 left-handers were getting on top of the England attack (there was even some shouting and arm waving), the rains came. After about 3 stoppages for rain, the match continued and it was obvious that the instructions were for Lara to get most of the strike to bring him close to 365. He reached 300 with a with a cut to 3rd man for 2, thus becoming just the 13th player to score 300 in an innings and the 3rd WIndian to do so. He ended the day at 320 and speculation was abound whether he will get the 46 runs the next day. The next morning he started out somewhat tensely. There were some calls for singles that Chander wisely turned down and one time he even called his more illustrious partner to calm him down. Well they worked things out and Lara kept going past some great batsmen like Bradman, Hanif, Hammond etc. He reached 350 by tucking Lewis off the legs for 1 and the crowd's cheer was somewhat muted, possibly saving it for the BIG occasion. There were 3 sets of 2s that were so close that had the crowd on EDGE but these two are VERY QUICK between the wicket and made them easily. In the meantime Chander, when not able to give Lara the strike, was playing enough shots to remind everyone that "this is not a one man show" (Mike Holding). He reached his 4th 50 in 4 tests but that went almost unnoticed for all eyes was on Lara. The police encircled the ground in anticipation of the pitch invasion. Chander got a single to give Lara the strike and Lara cover drove Caddick for 4 to take him to 365, equalling the record. Sobers then moved to the edge of the boundary in preparation to come on. Next over: Chander was looking for the single and got it on the 2nd ball. Lara on strike and the crowd was buzzing with excitement. Cozier comes on to do the commentary for the historic moment. Atherton BRINGS IN the field to save the single. Lewis comes in with the 3rd ball and pitches short on the offstump. Lara pivots on the left leg and pulls to midwicket. 4 runs and he punches the air and spreads his arms as he he becomes the highest single innings scorer in a test. Chander and Lara embrace as the police encircles them to protect Lara from the onrushing crowd. Sobers strides out to congratulate Lara. As Sir Gary departs, Lara goes down ON HIS KNEES AND KISSES THE PITCH!! The England players congratulate him and in Warwickshire they JUMP FOR JOY (courtesy of the BBC 9 o'clock news). In all play was held up for 7 minutes but there was no repeat of the protest that followed Sober's knock and play resumed. But it was all an anticlimax. Chander hit Lewis straight back and NEVER MOVED from the crease yet Lewis HURLED the ball at the stumps (or was it at Chander?) with Chander JUMPING out of the way. TOTALLY UNNECESSARY and as a Guyanese, I am HAPPY that he chose to play for England!! Lara had reached 375 when he aimed a big drive at Caddick and was caught behind. He did not wait for the umpire but started to walk immediately. Then I saw something I can't recall seeing in a test. As Lara started to walk, Caddick came up and put one arm on Lara's shoulder and shook his hand with the other. It was a nice touch and shows good sportsmanship on Caddick's part - something I thought was lost in cricket. I am glad to be proven wrong. The WI players formed an archway of bats for Lara to walk under and thus ended this HISTORIC innings. Chander was left on 75 n.o. as the WI declared at 593 for 5. I was filled with mixed emotions. I was sad for Sobers is one of my cricketing heros (along with Rohan Babulal Kanhai, the WI manager). I grew up hearing about Sobers' GREAT knock and now that record no longer stood. But if it had to be broken, then I was THRILLED that a WI batsman did it. I was privileged to have watched (via satellite) EVERY BALL of this innings and it had everything that a great innings should have - brilliant strokes, solid defence, immense concentration. It was never boring to look at. What stands out is the fact that it was a CHANCELESS knock and started out when the WI were in trouble at 12 for 2. It is an innings that I will always remember and the record is there to remind me of it. Contributed by Cliff.Shivcharan (charan@bnr.ca)