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All hail Lara the loner

This article is more than 18 years old

He may have fallen a boundary short of his first double-century in his native Trinidad, but in all other respects Brian Lara's timing remains as exquisite as ever.

Amid the past month's sponsorship brouhaha, and scarcely for the first time in his brilliant-but-controversial career, the future of the planet's most infuriating cricketer has been called into question. Recalled to the West Indies XI for the second Test against South Africa at Port of Spain - albeit not, significantly, as captain - Lara responded in the only way he knows: with a barrowload of runs. When last out to Andre Nel on the second morning yesterday, he had made 196 out of a total of 347: nobody else made 40.

On the opening day his unbeaten 159 saw him surpass Sir Garry Sobers' West Indies-record mark of 26 Test centuries and equal Allan Border's tally, leaving only Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Don Bradman and Steve Waugh for the tilting at. 'Garry Sobers made his centuries in fewer Tests [93] than me,' pointed out Lara, never one for undue modesty. 'It's a special feeling to go past that mark especially in front of my home crowd. But the records are not important. My aim was to get runs and stay at the crease as long as possible.'

Lara and six other leading West Indies players were not considered for selection for the first Test in Guyana owning to a sponsorship dispute; Shivnarine Chanderpaul took over as captain, scored a double-hundred, led a depleted side to a comfortable draw and was named captain for the remaininder of the four-match series. 'It's probably the best decision in terms of where West Indies cricket is at the moment,' Lara conceded. 'I love playing for the West Indies, and it doesn't matter to me who the captain is.

'Sometimes you can lean on the captaincy: now I've got to stay in the team by scoring runs that's what I am willing to do but most importantly what I would like to see is a lot of people get that tag away that I am an individual player... I love situations like this when the team is under a bit of pressure.'

Playing his first Test since August 2004, Lara hit twenty fours during what must be considered one of the greatest lone hands of his life. Makhaya Ntini finished with six for 95 before Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers replied with an opening stand of 70 that ended when Reon King sent back de Villiers. Another returnee, Dwayne Bravo, soon disposed of Jacques Rudolph as the tourists slid to 99 for two.

He lacks the hair, the charisma, the star pull and the pace, but in leading Pakistan to a resounding 106-run win over India in the third one-day international at Jamshedpur, - their first of the six-match series - Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan proved an incisive replacement spearhead for Shoaib Akhtar, writes Osman Samiuddin. After a century by Salman Butt and a splendid co-star's innings from Shoaib Malik had paved the way for a formidable total of 319 for nine, the Sussex-bound 27-year-old took six for 27.

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