Brian Lara Brian Charles Lara, (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing reco ...

is a former cricketer and captain of the West Indies cricket team. He was a skilled batsman, and was known for his ability to bat for long and high-scoring

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

. From his debut in international cricket in 1990 to his retirement in 2007, Lara scored 11,953 runs in

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

and 10,405 in One Day Internationals (ODI), accumulating a total of 53 centuries. His accomplishments with the bat saw him chosen as the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year in 1994, as well as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1995. Lara scored a Test century for the first time in his fifth Test match in 1993 against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. His score of 277 in that match is the fourth-highest maiden century in Test history. The 375 he made against England in 1994 was the highest individual Test score for nine years, until

Matthew Hayden Matthew Lawrence Hayden (born 29 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer. His career spanned fifteen years. Hayden was a powerful and aggressive left-handed batting order (cricket)#opening batsman, opening batsm ...

surpassed it in 2003. Lara regained the world record in 2004 when he made an unbeaten 400, once again against England. It is also the only quadruple century in Test cricket. The unbeaten 153 he scored against Australia in 1999 was rated as the second-best Test innings of all time by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2001. He has scored more than 200 runs on nine occasions, the highest after

Donald Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has bee ...

. Alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Virender Sehwag and Chris Gayle, he is one of four batsmen who have scored triple centuries on two occasions. Lara scored 34 centuries during his Test career, the highest number by a West Indian player. He is ranked sixth for the highest number of centuries in a career along with Mahela Jayawardene, Sunil Gavaskar and Younis Khan, behind Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis,

Ricky Ponting Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator, and former cricketer. Ponting was captain of the Australian national team during its "golden era", between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 20 ...

, Kumar Sangakkara and Rahul Dravid. Lara's first ODI century came more than two years after his debut match, when he scored 128 against Pakistan. His career best is 169 runs made against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

in 1995. It is also the third highest individual score by a West Indian batsman. The 117 he made against Bangladesh in 1999 is the fifth fastest century in ODI cricket. It was made in 45 balls at a

strike rate Strike rate refers to two different statistics in the sport of cricket. Batting strike rate is a measure of how quickly a batter achieves the primary goal of batting, namely scoring runs, measured in runs per 100 balls; higher is better. Bowling ...

of 188.70, reaching the boundary on eighteen occasions and clearing it on four. During his career, he scored more than 150 runs on three occasions. By the time of his retirement, he had scored 19 centuries in ODI matches. This is the second highest number of centuries scored by a single batsman for the West Indies, a record that Chris Gayle surpassed.

Key

* * Remained not out *

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in that match * Man of the match * (D/L) Result was determined by the Duckworth–Lewis method

Key

Test cricket centuries

ODI centuries

References

External links