On April 12, 2004, Brian Lara took his position back at the top of the pile. The left-hander from the West Indies had held the record for the highest individual score in Test cricket after he had scored 375 in 1994 but then Australia’s Matthew Hayden claimed the top spot with a blistering 380 off just 437 balls against Zimbabwe in 2003.

Now, Lara wanted to get his record back and once he set his mind to something, he was well nigh unstoppable.

Highest individual knocks in Test cricket

Player Runs Mins Balls 4s 6s Ground Match Start Date
BC Lara 400* 778 582 43 4 St John's 10 Apr 2004
ML Hayden 380 622 437 38 11 Perth 9 Oct 2003
BC Lara 375 766 538 45 0 St John's 16 Apr 1994
DPMD Jayawardene 374 752 572 43 1 Colombo (SSC) 27 Jul 2006
GS Sobers 365* 614 - 38 0 Kingston 26 Feb 1958
L Hutton 364 797 847 35 0 The Oval 20 Aug 1938
ST Jayasuriya 340 799 578 36 2 Colombo (RPS) 2 Aug 1997
Hanif Mohammad 337 970 - 24 0 Bridgetown 17 Jan 1958
WR Hammond 336* 318 - 34 10 Auckland 31 Mar 1933
DA Warner 335* 554 418 39 1 Adelaide 29 Nov 2019

Lara’s 400 came at St Johns, the same venue in Antigua where he had first gone past Garry Sobers’ long-standing mark of 365 not out and both these knocks came against England.

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With West Indies 0-3 down in the series, Lara decided to make the most of his time in the middle. His knock helped his team reach 751 in their first innings but England batted well enough to manage to draw the Test.

The innings won’t be remembered as an all-time classic but it sure raised the bar for modern batsmen.