Tell tale signs against Lara’s record

AFTER Matthew Hayden surpassed Brian Lara’s 375 on Friday last, Lara said that it was only a matter of time before it was done.

Further, he said he had earmarked Sachin Tendulkar and Chris Gayle as the men most likely to do it.  He, however, conceded that given the Australians’ fast pace of play in Tests, once one of their batsmen got in for a day and a half or two days, erasing his mark was always going to be the result. But given the signs of late, Lara should have known that this was the most likely time for the record to fall.  The number 13 is traditionally regarded as an unlucky one and with the number of times this number has surfaced in Lara’s life lately he hardly stood a chance against whatever forces there are out there.

Lara celebrates 13 years in international cricket. On Thursday playing for Trinidad against the Windward Islands in the Red Stripe Bowl in Jamaica, Lara was playing his 13th One Day game in the Caribbean for this year. He was out for 13 runs in the 13th over of the innings. His total runs in the tournament at the time his record fell was 78 which is perfectly divisible by 13 and  his average was 39 which is also perfectly divisible by 13. This year also marks Lara’s 13th year in international cricket, having made his debut in 1990 against Pakistan. Add all this to the fact that it was at the beginning of the 39th over last Thursday that a tremendous flash of lightning out of clear blue sky thundered down and struck Merv Dillon, Lara’s teammate both on the Trinidad and West Indies teams. Remember that 39 is perfectly divisible by 13. Also in certain parts of the world any similar triple figure number is thought of as an unlucky number. Is it any wonder then that at the time of the lightning strike Trinidad’s score was 111.

But what about the man who actually broke Lara’s record? What numbers surround him in all of this? Well, Hayden’s record breaking innings is also his 13th Test innings for the year. He played two against England, eight against the West Indies and two against Bangladesh with this his 13th innings being against Zimbabwe. The Queenslander is competing in his 13th Test match at home against opposition that is not the West Indies. He has also faced West Indies attacks on Australian soil in 13 innings in eight games and Brian Lara played in every one of those games. And just in the event all this does not unnerve you, perhaps you may want to count the number of letters in the name M-A-T-T-H-E-W H-A-Y-D-E-N.