West Indies legend Brian Lara scored world record 400 against England on this day in 2004

Former West Indies batting legend Brian Lara smashed the highest-ever Test score on this day 17 years ago. On April 12, 2004, Brian Lara registered 400 runs against England in the final Test match of the four-game series that was being played in Antigua. Lara scored the runs in his first innings of the fourth Test match and remained unbeaten. The batting maestro broke the record of Australia’s Matthew Hayden, who had hit 380 runs against Zimbabwe a year before in 2003. 

Lara's stunning knock

The fourth Test match between West Indies and England was played from April 10 to April 14 at St. John’s, Antigua. Lara reached the mammoth total on the third day of the final Test match. When Lara came in to bat, West Indies was 98 for 2, having lost Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga. Lara batted for nearly 13 hours and with the help of his 400-run knock, he took his team to 751 before declaring the innings. 

Lara’s knock of 400 runs that came off 582 balls, includes 43 boundaries and 4 maximums. West Indies forced England to follow-on, which was then bowled out for 285 runs in its first innings and remained unbeaten on 422 for 5 in the second innings to draw the match. With his incredible innings, the West Indies legend became the first and only cricketer in the world to score 400 runs in Test cricket, a record which is still untouched. 

Interestingly, Brian Lara had also smashed the previous highest individual score in Test cricket at the same venue against England, when he registered 375 in 1994. The record was broken by Australia’s Matthew Hayden, who had scored 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003. Lara reclaimed the record a year later with his mind-boggling knock of 400 runs. 

(Image Credit: AP)