Fly Lara Fly

[TestMatch]

A very good article:

Fly Lara fly | The Cricket Monthly | ESPN Cricinfo

In the first Test in Galle, Sarwan has no idea which direction Murali's deliveries are going to spin. He mentions this mid-pitch to his partner, Brian Lara. Lara tells him he isn't picking Murali either. "What you gonna do, boss?" Sarwan asks. "He says, 'Well, I'm going to try and sweep my way to a hundred.'" He adds, "'Before the series is out I will be pickin' him and hittin' him wherever I want.'"

In Galle, Sarwan watches a Lara 178 unfold without the batsman knowing which way the ball is going to turn. "Astonishing" is the word he uses.

In the second Test in Kandy, he sees that Lara has understood how it's coming out of Murali's hand, "because he was demonstrating to us how we can pick him. He was already using his feet and hitting him through midwicket and stuff like that".

By the third Test in Colombo the code is cracked. "They had long-off, long-on, and he was still using his feet and hitting those balls between long-on and long-off. Basically, he was hitting him wherever he want, just like he mentioned to me in the first Test match."

Perversely, he was using Murali's accuracy, his consistency, against him. "Ninety percent of the time if Murali want to put a ball on a 25-cent he will be able to put it there. Because he was so confident of Murali bowling in one area so consistently, he was going to use his feet and pick him off."

The code, though, I'm interested in the code. How was he picking him? What was the code? "He would pick him from his wrist. Obviously with Muralitharan, the topspinners with the offspinners, the rotation is the same, it's travelling in one direction. He said he was picking him up from the wrist, but obviously not everyone is as gifted as him."

In Port-of-Spain v Australia in 2003, close to a long-awaited first century on home soil, in the heat of a torrid Brett Lee spell - the fastest Sarwan has ever encountered - Lara gets fed up of turning himself into an inverted airborne "C" against Lee's bouncers, looks around the field and tells his partner: "Listen, I'm going to hit him in front of square. When they move the fielder in front of square, I'm going to hit him a little more in front of square. And then I'm going to hit him behind square." Watch him here fulfil part of the plan ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6KefD-Db-U&t=17m35s ) . On 99 he fancies the spinner. "Get me on strike, I need to be on strike now!" First ball he duly takes a boundary and the century.

The 153 not out was before Sarwan's West Indies debut. But he recalls Lara saying something about it, "when I got to know him enough to ask questions". "That innings he calculated that you need to hit X amount of fours - I think he had worked out that he needed 18 or 20 boundaries to win the game." Sarwan is in Guyana, I am in India and we are both laughing on the line and I think we are both shaking our heads. Afterwards I look up the numbers on the scorecard. BC Lara, 4s 19, 6s 1.

 

[91Jmay]

I remember listening to an innings he had against England in England years ago where he was literally hitting balls pitching on the exact same line and length through midwicket and extra cover depending on which he fancied.

My favourite ever batsmen.

 

[honestbharani]

ONe of the rare awesome pieces in crapinfo. BCL is so awesome. The man was God's gift to cricket, wasn't he?

 

[OverratedSanity]

ONe of the rare awesome pieces in crapinfo. BCL is so awesome. The man was God's gift to cricket, wasn't he?

Rare? Cricket Monthly consistently puts out excellent stuff.

 

[honestbharani]

Rare? Cricket Monthly consistently puts out excellent stuff.

Yeah, tbh, I have not read much on that magazine at all. So felt rare to me, given how the main website articles generally tend to be.

 

[jimmy101]

Lara = True Greatness

 

[indiaholic]

The most outrageous Lara anecdote was in the profile of Chanderpaul where he mentions that Lara would vary the amount of spin on his cut shots to manipulate the field.

 

[TestMatch]

mentions that Lara would vary the amount of spin on his cut shots to manipulate the field.

lol. That reminds me of this video, particularly the shot at about 1:20:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od58z0FGWWE

Yeah, tbh, I have not read much on that magazine at all. So felt rare to me, given how the main website articles generally tend to be.

The quality of writing is better on the Magazine, though the prose does tend to get too flowery, referential and hyperbolic. At its best, the magazine attempts actual journalistic leg-work, tracking down player family members, friends and going out to actual homes and home-towns.

 

[Garson007]

Lara just was better than anyone else when he was playing. Deserved to be in a world beating team.

 

[Victor Ian]

Great piece - thanks Test Match

 

[weldone]

I miss Lara's batting.

Where is a left-handed batsman with flair in world cricket today? Warner is a butcher, Cook is a boring accumulator. Darren Bravo is probably the only one who has flair - and on the rare occasions when he does something very special he generally runs out of partners, as a result of being part of a **** team

 

[honestbharani]

I honestly thought around 2005 or 2006 that Yuvraj will become that at the test level.