May 15, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1424

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ST JOHN’S, May 14: West Indies captain Brian Lara says that nothing in his cricketing career, not even setting the highest individual Test score of 375 on the same ground, has given him more satisfaction than Tuesday’s three-wicket victory over Australia.

“It’s the greatest cricketing experience I’ve had and there’ve been a lot — the 375 here in Antigua, the win in Barbados against Australia (in 1999),” said a jubilant Lara of his side’s world-record fourth innings run chase.

“I’ve played Test cricket for 12 years and nothing surpasses this.”

West Indies, down 3-0 in the four-Test series and staring at their first ever whitewash in the Caribbean, successfully achieved 418, the highest ever fourth innings run chase, to sneak the three-wicket victory on Tuesday.

Lara said the previous highest run chase, India’s 406 for four against the West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1976, had guided him in setting his side’s tactics for the chase after he studied the scoreboard from that match.

“I thought there would be a first wicket stand of 300 or a huge innings but it (the scoreboard) wasn’t that impressive,” he said.

“I just realised that we needed to put a few partnerships together. It was about partnerships and that’s what we worked on in this match.”

Lara, the third West Indies captain in four years, was confident his team would now emerge from a difficult period that has seen home series defeats to South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in successive years.

“West Indies have grown over the last two years (and) achieving this will catapult us to great things in the future.

“We’ve improved in every Test and I think we are not going to lose another Test match for the rest of the year.

“It showed true character and a progression of the guys’ mentality. This is an opportunity for them to understand that they’ve created history.”

Waugh, meanwhile, dismissed a suggestion that his team have made cricket boring by winning all the time.

“Rubbish, really,” said Waugh when asked what he thought about the suggestion his side were boring.

“I don’t remember anyone saying that the West Indies ruined the game in the 1970s and 1980s. What happens is that it makes everyone else raise their standards.”

Waugh said West Indies were an example of teams stepping up to the challenge.

“West Indies are an emerging side, they showed that in the last two Tests. They’ve gone a bit further, raised the bar and it’s up to other sides to try and do the same.”

Waugh said that his team’s performance in the fourth Test had been affected by the gap of only three days since the end of the third Test in Barbados.

“We raised the bar in the Barbados Test and we lowered it in this Test match.

“It’s a big ask when you have back to back Test matches. Two or three days between Test matches in not really enough (and) we knew it would be a tough fight but we didn’t expect to lose.”—Reuters