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Brian Lara Masterclass

Furball

Evil Scotsman
It's come on Sky after the ODI.

**** the bloke was a genius. What a player.

That is all. Just had to express how much I loved the bloke.
 

Stace

First Class Debutant
Yeh I've seen it a few times and it never gets boring. Genius is an overused word but Lara certainly was. He got me hooked on cricket, would have loved to have seen him live.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Got to see the genius play an amazing knock in Chennai in an ODI. IT was the middle overs on a night where there was no due. The Chennai wicket was always going to help spinners because of the natural bounce. But he came in at 4 and had a biig partnership with that idiot Samuels. Samuels smashed the seamers and had gotten a headstart but Lara caught up to him in no time. Effortlessly manipulating and smashing boundaries off the spinners (Kumble, no less) with the field spread out. It just showed why he was widely regarded as the best batsman of spin of that generation. He bloody did as he pleased against them. Friggin' ridiculous how easy he can make the game and amazing outrageous strokemaking look.
 

kingkallis

International Coach
One of the greatest. I have not seen Bradman or Sobers or Pollock in action but this man - he has entertained us for years despite batting with spineless batsmen around him. Best bat of our era!
 

OverratedSanity

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My personal favourite memory of Lara's is actually a double he got against pakistan in 2006. I was sitting around with a couple of american friends who had barely seen a ball of cricket in their lives when I switched to the Pakistan vs West Indies match. Within 15 minutes, the two of them were groaning with boredom while I was attempting to explain to them why test cricket was great to watch. Then Lara decided to treat Kaneria (who was bowling very well) like a club bowler and began smashing it to all parts and they were captivated. By the end they were grinning from ear to ear saying "that dude's amazing".
 

OverratedSanity

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Lara was a **** though. Never ever got a score when I was at the stadium to watch him bat.
 
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pardus

School Boy/Girl Captain
To me, the best batsman of 90s/2000s. IMO, his batting performances against Aus in 2003 were qualitatively even better than his famed 1999 performances. In his first innings of the first Test in 2003, he scored a 26 with four square cuts that most batsmen would be proud of playing over their entire career (let alone playing them all in 1 brief innings). In the middle of Lara's innings, Steve Waugh was forced to place the Point fieldsman at the boundary. The first square cut off a 147Kph Brett Lee delivery (@1:23 in the below video) was the shot that made me sit up. Although I had seen Lara bat several times before that, never really singled him out for extraordinary praise. But that particular shot (that too against Lee's pace in the first hour of the first day of Test match cricket) just left me gasping in utter disbelief. It was amazing how late he played the cut shot. And the bat-speed (or the arm-speed) was such that Lara actually cut it in front of square (it is awfully hard to do that off a 147 Kph delivery, against that much pace most batsmen almost invariably cut it behind square).

Lara's battles with Lee in the 2003 series, by his own admission bowling as fast as he had ever done in his career, made compelling watching. Lee using his express bouncers to get the attacking Lara in a tangle, while Lara responding with the first ball square cut 6 over point in the Antigua Test and some brilliantly controlled hook/pull shots off 150 kph bouncers (again in front of square) in the Trinidad Test.

It is amazing how the great batsmen from West Indies played the high-risk game of fighting fire with fire even against the best, and yet have stats/figures every bit as good as their contemporaries who played it much safer.

Lillee, while rating Viv Richards as the best batsman he has bowled to, once wrote “For sheer ability to rip an attack apart, animal brutality and no fear in taking you on, I have to put Viv Richards on top of the list. I just loved bowling against the man. I enjoyed it because it was such a challenge and I regarded him as one of the supreme players if not the supreme player.” Same attitude could be told of Lara as well.

 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
useful bat - totally unreliable human being though - for a while he had a deal with a newspaper here to write a weekly column - according to the bloke who ghosted it for him he never actually managed to keep an appointment
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The one time I saw him play the whole team got skittled by Zimbabwe for like 90 chasing 130. As a 9 year old I was shattered
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
useful bat - totally unreliable human being though - for a while he had a deal with a newspaper here to write a weekly column - according to the bloke who ghosted it for him he never actually managed to keep an appointment
Creates jobs for writers too. What a guy.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
To me, the best batsman of 90s/2000s. IMO, his batting performances against Aus in 2003 were qualitatively even better than his famed 1999 performances. In his first innings of the first Test in 2003, he scored a 26 with four square cuts that most batsmen would be proud of playing over their entire career (let alone playing them all in 1 brief innings). In the middle of Lara's innings, Steve Waugh was forced to place the Point fieldsman at the boundary. The first square cut off a 147Kph Brett Lee delivery (@1:23 in the below video) was the shot that made me sit up. Although I had seen Lara bat several times before that, never really singled him out for extraordinary praise. But that particular shot (that too against Lee's pace in the first hour of the first day of Test match cricket) just left me gasping in utter disbelief. It was amazing how late he played the cut shot. And the bat-speed (or the arm-speed) was such that Lara actually cut it in front of square (it is awfully hard to do that off a 147 Kph delivery, against that much pace most batsmen almost invariably cut it behind square).



Lara's battles with Lee in the 2003 series, by his own admission bowling as fast as he had ever done in his career, made compelling watching. Lee using his express bouncers to get the attacking Lara in a tangle, while Lara responding with the first ball square cut 6 over point in the Antigua Test and some brilliantly controlled hook/pull shots off 150 kph bouncers (again in front of square) in the Trinidad Test.

It is amazing how the great batsmen from West Indies played the high-risk game of fighting fire with fire even against the best, and yet have stats/figures every bit as good as their contemporaries who played it much safer.

Lillee, while rating Viv Richards as the best batsman he has bowled to, once wrote “For sheer ability to rip an attack apart, animal brutality and no fear in taking you on, I have to put Viv Richards on top of the list. I just loved bowling against the man. I enjoyed it because it was such a challenge and I regarded him as one of the supreme players if not the supreme player.” Same attitude could be told of Lara as well.



Think McGrath rated Lara as the best for similar reasons.
 

indiaholic

International Captain
Peak Lara was such a monster.. Seemed to be in position to play shots before the ball was bowled. Had a touch of the divine about him.
 

AldoRaine18

State Vice-Captain
I don't know what was in his bat or in his arms, but he just made the sweetest sound I've ever heard while connecting bat with ball. It felt like a lightning bolt had struck.
 

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