Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY THE FIRST Test match between the West Indies and South Africa is now history, it was won by the home team, Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis both scored centuries, and the man of the match award went to fast bowler Makhaya Ntini who took five wickets in the first innings and four in the second.
The performance to remember, however, was Brian Lara's epic double century in the first innings. It was a great innings so great that it must be numbered among his best performances.
In a truly magnificent effort, in a superb display of technique and stroke play, the man considered by many as the greatest batsman of his time and among the best of all time, went to bat at 94 for two with the West Indies chasing 561 and scored 202 off 274 deliveries before he was dismissed at 409 for nine after stroking 32 fours and two sixes.
It was a performance that brought back memories, not of his then world record 375 against England at the Antigua Recreation Ground in 1994, but of his 277 against Australia at Sydney in 1992-93, his 145 against England at Old Trafford in 1995, his 152 against England at Trent Bridge also in 1995, his 213 against Australia at Sabina Park in 1999, his 153 not out against Australia at Kensington Oval in the same series, his 100 against Australia at the ARG also in the same series, and his 221 against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2001-02.
Those were all masterpieces - some because of his scintillating and at times audacious stroke play, some because of the conditions and the quality of the bowlers, and some because of the apparently hopeless position from which he lifted the team and carried it to victory.
At Sydney, for example, the West Indies, replying to Australia's 503 for nine declared and up against Shane Warne on a pitch notorious for helping spin and which had started to do so, were 31 for two when Lara, still to score a Test century, walked to the crease and in a beautiful exhibition of strokes, in what many argued was the best innings ever in a Test match in Australia, dominated Warne and company before he was run out after stroking 38 boundaries.
At Sabina Park, the West Indies, dismissed for 51 and beaten by 312 runs in the first Test, were five for two replying to Australia's 256 when Lara joined the action, reeled off some breath-taking strokes, produced what Tony Cozier described as the most significant innings ever by a West Indian, and with the help of Jimmy Adams who scored 94 while sharing a fifth-wicket partnership of 322 with his captain, led the West Indies to victory by 10 wickets.
At Kensington Oval where the West Indies defeated Australia by one wicket to take a two-one lead in the series, it was Lara again - with some help from Sherwin Campbell, Ridley Jacobs, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh on two occasions.
Replying to Australia's 490, the West Indies were 98 for six when Campbell (105) and Jacobs (68) lifted them to 329. Walsh then nailed the Aussies for 146 with five for 39, and with 308 to win, the West Indies were 248 for eight before, with Ambrose and Walsh standing firm, Lara carried them to a sensational victory.
Was Lara at the Wanderers as brilliant as Lara at Sydney, Sabina Park and Kensington Oval, or even in Colombo where, as was the case in Johannesburg, his brilliance did not save the West Indies?
Maybe he was not as brilliant even though he did what no man has ever done in a Test match when he smashed 28 runs in one over from left-arm spinner Robin Peterson. Because of the state of the game when Lara went to bat, however, because of the state of the game while he was batting and wickets were falling around him, because of the unpredictable bounce of the ball, because of the quality of the South African fast bowlers, and after starting cautiously and then parading his repertoire of strokes, because of the skill he paraded, it was a great innings and undoubtedly one of his best.
