Brian Lara's 400

On this day, in 2004, at Antigua, West Indies

Brian Charles Lara, on this day recorded the highest individual score in Test Cricket. One of the best in Cricket. It came against a power packed English side, who were approaching a white wash in that Test series.

At first three test matches, West Indies lost all the three in their own home ground, as England were so strong. On the other hand, West Indies need to prove their mark, and they also needed to play and win it for their pride. Also, people were starting to question on Brian Lara's captaincy. Also, Mathew Hayden had scored the highest test score by an individual, by breaking the score set by Brian Lara himself 10 years ago.

Now let us look into the match. At first, Darren Ganga lost his wicket early. In at No.3 position, the then captain of Windies, Brian Lara has arrived. At first, he was bit struggling in the swing of Harmison. Then, it was pure class. Smashed all the bowlers, more in a classical way. Some pure flourishing moments were placed in this match. After he scored his triple century, England bowlers started to give up their bowling effort and he was seen unstoppable. He broke the highest score in Test of 380, set by Mathew Hayden was broken by hitting a 4 from 380, and celebrated this milestone. Then, he finished, by hitting 400 runs, and he himself declared the innings, remaining not out. He scored 375 runs at just the age of 25, and scored 400 at the age of 35, so here it mentions, even if the time passes by, the greatness remains the same and also age is just a number before the intent of the player. He hit 43 fours and 4 sixes in his knock and still it remains the highest score ever in Test cricket by an individual batsman. On that match, West Indies drew the match and Man of the Match award was given undoubtedly to Brian Lara. One of the best captain's innings in cricketing history. 

It should have been broken in the recent years, but teams are focused more on winning the match and not on making a history in cricket. Once such instance is David Warner, who were at 335*, and was set to break Lara's record, but unfortunately the innings was declared and he was called back. 

Brian Lara also mentioned in his interview that "Please Let allow the batsman to play his innings fully, and it can create records in future cricket". Which is seen healthier as both ODIs and T20Is, have been restricted to a particular number of overs, while this format is the purest form of cricket, where both batsman and bowler can create records, which has been tackled by the idea of declaring an innings. Here I am not criticizing the idea of declaring an innings, but should have concern till some extent, about a batsman.