Lara back to his brilliant best
by Tony Cozier
ARUNDEL - It was simply a matter of time and, for Brian Lara personally and for the West Indies collectively, the timing was impeccable, in every sense. Five days before the first Test against England starts on Thursday, in what might have been his last innings until then and with scores like an international dialling code ( 1, 1, 0, 11) in his previous innings on tour, Lara dispelled all the doubts of the past three months in just over three hours of sheer magic here yesterday. His 176, fashioned from 163 balls and adorned with five dismissive sixes and 25 breathtaking fours, matched an afternoon of glorious summer's sunshine and lit up one of the game's most striking settings, the tree-lined ground within the walls of ancient Arundel Castle. His strokeplay clearly delighted his team-mates, some 4 000 awe-struck spectators who twice proclaimed him with standing ovations and, possibly, even his Zimbabwean opponents.
They would have been happy to be spared his presence during their recent tour in the Caribbean as he took his self-imposed break from the game. It was an emphatic - and, for England, worrying - return of the authentic Lara whose stated aim is to do even better against them following his second coming than in his first that included five hundreds, including his Test record 375, and an average of over 80. The left-handed maestro thoroughly dominated proceedings during his dazzling display. He transformed batting that was as difficult as advanced trigonometry and rendered as simple as 1, 2, 3. He sped to his first 50 from 43 balls, his second 50 from 50 and his third from 45. Hardly an over went by without a boundary or some tumbling Zimbabwean saving one. Lara seemed to be satiated when he was bowled, swinging inattentively at left-arm medium-pacer Bryan Strang six overs into the second new ball. In its own way, the completely contrasting all-day vigil of 141 unbeaten by Sherwin Campbell, who was Lara's unnoticed partner in a stand of 276 for the third wicket, was of equal significance for the West Indies. As the team's only established opener, Campbell had also been through lean times on tour with scores of 0, 5, 13 and 1. He battled through a difficult opening against the Zimbabwean swingers who, given the chance on winning the toss, exploited a pitch encouraging movement before lunch. They exerted such pressure that the West Indies had limped to 55 for two when Shivnarine Chanderpaul edged the fifth ball of the 40th over 20 minutes after lunch low to second slip. Campbell was 31 when Lara arrived to render it a difficult game and was content to follow in his rampant partner's slipstream. He had added only nine as Lara sped to his first 50 with two sixes over long-on off medium-pacer Pompeii Mgangwa and seven fours, but gradually he revealed his favoured off-side strikes that earned him most of his 20 fours- a couple were edged through the slips - off the 308 balls he received. He offered one chance, pulling leg-spinner Paul Strang into and out of midwicket's grasp the over before tea when he was 77. It was a repeat of the stroke that brought his downfall to another leggie, Mushtaq Ahmed, in his last Test innings less than three weeks ago in Antigua. Lara missed his first ball from Johnson but, after that did simply as he pleased. His most breathtaking strokes were through the off-side, cuts and drives. Twice he hoisted left-arm spinner Dirk Viljoen for long sixes in the same over. Viljoen responded by keeping him to the only maiden he blocked all innings, only for Lara to lash him for a four and a six off the first two balls of his next. Happy as everyone was over Lara and Campbell, concern remained over the rest of the batting. When Lara was absent, it was downright ordinary. Adrian Griffith was distinctly uncomfortable in eeking out six from 34 balls when times were most testing. He fell lbw to Johnson in the tenth over. Chanderpaul spent 85 balls over 17 before his demise and, after Lara had finished his masterclass, Jimmy Adams, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Ridley Jacobs were despatched in the space of six overs and eight runs. Adams sliced his third ball from Bryan Strang to gully; Sarwan was lbw, to the same bowler, aiming to leg, and Jacobs lbw to Mbangwa, falling across to the off-side. It provided a limp anti-climax to a memorable day.
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