debut: 1/24/04
16,225 runs
Saw this innings live back in the day at a bar in Etobicoke.
The Aussies had already won the series with McGrath getting Lara out in the first 3 Tests.
In my opinion this is one of Lara's better Test innings. This was the final Test and series was already lost but the pressure was still on the WI to make it a 3-2 instead a 4-1 result.
But it was the pitch at the WACA which Bill Lawry described as "diabolical" with cracks the size of Merv Dillion's teeth everywhere in addition to it being fast and bouncy. This was also in the era of small bats, big boundaries, fast bouncy pitches, and of course bowlers the class of Warne and McGrath. Scoring 132 off 183 balls on that pitch, against that attack, was special back when that type of innings meant something.
Now with the big bats, small boundaries and flat pitches guys today just swing for the fences and score at these stupid strike rates and think they could survive on that WACA pitch in 1997.
The Aussies had already won the series with McGrath getting Lara out in the first 3 Tests.
In my opinion this is one of Lara's better Test innings. This was the final Test and series was already lost but the pressure was still on the WI to make it a 3-2 instead a 4-1 result.
But it was the pitch at the WACA which Bill Lawry described as "diabolical" with cracks the size of Merv Dillion's teeth everywhere in addition to it being fast and bouncy. This was also in the era of small bats, big boundaries, fast bouncy pitches, and of course bowlers the class of Warne and McGrath. Scoring 132 off 183 balls on that pitch, against that attack, was special back when that type of innings meant something.
Now with the big bats, small boundaries and flat pitches guys today just swing for the fences and score at these stupid strike rates and think they could survive on that WACA pitch in 1997.
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