Brian Lara

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Career highlights

• Lara showed his talent in his 5th Test, striking 277 runs against Australia in Sydney, his maiden Test century. It remains the fourth highest maiden Test century by any batsman. http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/HIGHEST_MAIDEN_TONS.html. It was also the highest individual score in all Tests between the two teams, the fourth-highest ever recorded against Australia.
• He became the first man to score seven centuries in eight first-class innings, the first being the historic record 375 against England and the last being the record 501 not out against Durham.
• After Matthew Hayden had eclipsed his Test record 375 by five runs in 2003, he reclaimed the record - a unique feat - scoring 400 not out in 2004. With this innings he became the second player to score two Test 300s, the second player to score two career 400s, the only player to achieve both these milestones, and regained the distinction of being the holder of both the record first-class individual innings and the record Test individual innings.
• He is the all-time leading run scorer for West Indies and the 3rd leading run scorer in all of Test cricket http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/TEST_BAT_MOST_RUNS.html. He also holds the world record for the fastest 10,000 runs, a feat achieved in 111 matches and 195 innings.
• He has (as of June 2005) scored 30 centuries (the most for a West Indian and 4th for all Test cricket), of which 7 are double centuries (surpassed only by Bradman) http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/LEADING_BATSMEN_TEST_200S.html. He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations.
• Lara fought many lone battles as the West Indies collective batting strength slumped over the years. He has scored an astonishing 19% of his team runs http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/JUN/159724_COL-STATS_02JUN2004.html, a feat surpassed only by Bradman (23%) and George Headley (21%). Lara scored 688 runs (a record 42% of team output and the second highest aggregate runs in history for a three-Test series) in the 2001-02 tour of Sri Lanka http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/HI_AGG_RUNS_IN_SERIES.html.
• He also scored a century and a double century in the third Test in that same Sri Lanka tour, a feat repeated only five other times in Test cricket history http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/100_EACH_INNS_TEST.html.
• A devastating batsman when in form, Lara holds the world record of scoring most runs (28) in a single over in Test cricket http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/TEST_BAT_MOST_RUNS_OVER.html.
• He is fourth all-time in the category of most catches in a career by a non-Wicketkeeper http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/FIELDING/CATCHES_CAREER.html.
• In 1994, he was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award. In 1995, he was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
• Comfortably averaging over 50 per innings (the benchmark for batting greatness in Test cricket), Lara has often been ranked the number one batsman in Test cricket according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Cricket Ratings http://www.pwcratings.com.
• Lara has played some of the most brilliant innings in recent years. Wisden published a top 100 list in July 2001, a distillation of the best performances from 1,552 Tests, 54,494 innings and 29,730 bowling performances. Three innings by Lara were placed in the top 15 http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2001/jul/30bat100.htm. His heroic 153 not out in Bridgetown, Barbados, during West Indies' 2-2 home series draw against Australia in *1998-1999 was deemed the second greatest Test innings ever played, behind Bradman's 270 against England in the Third Test of the 1936-1937 series at Melbourne. On 13 October, *2003, PricewaterhouseCoopers Ratings team published a list of top innings since 1990 under their own methodology. Lara's 213 against Australia in Kingston, Jamaica in 1999 came out to be the top innings. His 375 was placed 8th and his three other innings, including the 153 not out, were not far behind.