Tony Becca
YEARS FROM now when cricket fans look back at the 2004 Cable & Wireless Test Series, there is one performance that they will talk about with a sparkle in their eyes a performance that those who were present, those privileged to witness a master batsman in action and creating history, will proudly say, "I was there".
That performance was Brian Lara's innings in the fourth and final Test at the Antigua Recreation Ground the innings during which he regained the world record for the highest individual innings in the history of the game and during which he became the first man to score 400 runs in an innings with a magnificent 400 not out.
In a series that ended 3-0 in England's favour, the fans will also certainly remember fast bowler Steve Harmison's haul of seven wickets for 12 runs at Sabina Park when the West Indies were destroyed for a record low 47, and fast bowler Matthew Hoggard's hat-trick at Kensington Oval when the West Indies were routed for 94. Right up there with all three, however, probably in front of all three, was Graham Thorpe's 119 not out at Kensington Oval.
A world record is something special no doubt about that, so too the achievement of becoming the first man to score 400 runs, and to take seven wickets for so few runs in an innings, to take a hat-trick, especially one that accounted for the number four, number five and number six batsmen, is a dream come true, and some one may ask, how can a century be compared to such achievements.
There are, however, some good reasons why.
BATSMAN'S PARADISE
One is that the 400 not out was scored on a batsman's paradise of a pitch a pitch prepared to ensure, as much as possible, a draw; two is that the seven-wicket haul and the hat-trick were achieved on pitches that were a blessing to fast bowlers; and three is that the undefeated century was scored, not on a pitch good for batting, but on a pitch perfect for bowlers a pitch off which the fast bowlers not only got the ball to move alarmingly off the seam but also to fly awkwardly off the seam to the extent that even a batsman as great as Lara was hit all over the body while limping to 33 in the West Indies second innings.
On top of all that, not one other batsman reached 20 as England, up against the Windies four-pronged pace attack of Fidel Edwards, Pedro Collins, Tino Best and Corey Collymore in their own backyard and in the "Lion's Den", battled to 226 replying to the West Indies 224.
It was a masterpiece, an innings that lasted for 307 minutes and 220 deliveries, an innings that paraded skill and character, and whenever the opportunity presented itself, some glorious strokes - hooks, cuts, pulls, and drives off the front foot, off the back foot, and on both sides of the wicket.
ENGLAND INNINGS
Going to bat at 33 for three, the left-handed Thorpe was on 71 at 163 for eight, 92 at 187 for nine, and with Harmison as his partner and not much time left as far as the England innings was concerned, he stepped up the pace in his bid to reach his century and to shepherd England past the West Indies total.
He marched to his century with class - a hook off Edwards landing inches short of the backward square-leg boundary, a chip and drive off the pacer, two deliveries later, sailing to the long-off boundary.
With Lara preening himself at the ARG, Harmison and Hoggard doing likewise at Sabina Park and Kensington Oval, the fans even now, probably do not even remember Thorpe at Kensington Oval. All things considered, however, including its impact on the outcome of the match and therefore the series, Thorpe at Kensington was the performance of the series.
