Brian Lara Overtakes Allan Border
Brian Lara overtook Allan Border to hold the world record for most test runs overnight. He now has 11,187, featuring 8 double hundreds.
He holds the world record for most runs in a test innings (400, against England), alongside the third best, (an old record, 375*, against England), sandwiching Matthew Hayden's 380, which held the world record for two months before Lara became the first man to reclaim the world record.
He also holds the first class record (501* for Warwickshire). In one three-test tour against Sri Lanka, he scored 688 runs, 42% of all runs scored by the West Indies in the series.
His runs come at an average of 54.04, beaten in the modern game only by Sachin Tendulkar. Had he played for the West Indies in better times, he may well have an even better average.
A left-hander, he is unquestionably one of the very best batsmen ever to grace cricket, and only Tendulkar could question that. I has the great privilege of watching him in the Lords test of 2004, where he fell just 11 runs short of his 10,000 runs. It's a massive shame he didn't score well that day, for he is truly great. May he hit us English folk for even more runs in the future - it's worth it :)
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