The Prince of West Indies: Revisiting Brian Lara's lofty peaks

3. Taking on Warne and McGrath and booking a place in Wisden's top 100 list

Stats suggest that Warne and McGrath did keep Lara in check but with limited success against him in tests. Some of Brian's greatest knocks have come against an Australia marveling at the skill and combined talents of their two bowling legends.

Of all the best bowler's he's played against, Lara has scored at a rate of 62 against Warne and 38.5 against McGrath, losing his wicket on most occasions to former South Africa seamer Andre Nel who dismissed him on 8 occasions. Even Murali and Vaas haven't been able to topple Lara at the crease with such precision.

Perhaps playing one of the most vital knocks ever in test cricket history, during 1999, Brian Lara essayed an absolute scorcher under a beaming Barbados sun. Following on his gorgeous 213 at Jamaica amidst rousing clamour for his axing from West Indian captaincy and the national side in lines with West Indies' distraught 5 nil loss against South Africa, Lara sang the redemption song with his 153 not out.

A test match that read mostly like Michael Jackson's thriller and one which could have gone either way, especially with West Indies first reducing Aussies for 146 in second innings and then finding themselves at 98-6 in the second innings during their 308 run target, Lara stood between West Indies and Australia.

In what has been described by both Mark Waugh and the revered Wisden's best 100 test knocks, Lara's majestic 153 scaled a tall order. Punishing against Warne and bitter his disdain of Glenn McGrath's bowling, Lara cut, swept and lashed outscoring the winning runs for West Indies and reigning supreme under most adverse times for his own self and for West Indies.