Remembering Lara's quadruple century

Eleven years ago, Brian Lara walked out to bat in Antigua with the West Indies 1-33 against England at Antigua. When he finally decided he was through batting, more than two days later, he had a world record score of 400. Not out.

Lara's innings was a catalogue of exceptional stroke play. He passed the previous best of 380 by Matthew Hayden and then declared after reaching the quadruple century.

The Trinidadian left-hander faced 582 deliveries, hit 43 fours and four sixes after spending 778 minutes, or just shy of 13 hours, at the crease. He walked out to bat early on day one, and walked off again after lunch on the third day.

Hayden's knock, against Zimbabwe in October 2003, not only set the record for the highest individual Australian Test score, surpassing the mark of 334 set by Sir Donald Bradman and Mark Taylor, had also beaten Lara's previous best of 375, also against England, in 1994.

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Lara had resumed day three at 313 and shared an unbroken partnership of 282 with Ridley Jacobs, who hit a century himself, as the West Indies piled on runs to reach 5-751 when Lara declared.

Lara equalled Hayden's score by lofting Batty over long-on for six and then topped the mark with a swept four past fine leg.

"Matt (Hayden) said he had been listening to it and was very happy for me," said Lara after play.

"He enjoyed the period he had the record and I am sure he is capable of doing it again, as are a lot of very good batsmen around the world, and I really appreciated that he took the time out to make the call."

Hayden said Lara's innings was "awesome" and that he was proud to have his record broken by Lara's effort.

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"I spoke to Brian over the phone and passed on my congratulations for a truly amazing effort," said Hayden.

"I feel proud to know he's conquered me with such an awesome performance.

"I wanted to let him know how appreciative I was when he contacted me in Perth last October. I thought it was only appropriate that I pass on my own best wishes to him.

"Breaking Brian's record against Zimbabwe was one of the most memorable days of my cricketing life, but records are made to be broken, and as a batsman, I guess they can fall at any time."

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Lara's bat was beaten by Steve Harmison early on in his innings, but he did not offer another chance until he was on 359, when a leg-side strangle was dropped by debutant wicketkeeper Geraint Jones.

"When I reached it (the record) before I didn't know what to expect. This time it was very tiring but I'm here again," Lara said.

"I didn't really think about the record until I got to my double hundred and realised there was still a lot of time left in the game because of the rate we were scoring."

The Test was drawn – a second-innings century from Michael Vaughan saved England – but the tourists had already won the first three Tests of the four-Test series, their first series victory in the West Indies since 1968.