‘Looked at him and said, ‘You’re welcome” – Dale Steyn recalls how South Africa saved Brian Lara’s historic 400* record

Former South Africa speedster and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) bowling coach Dale Steyn shared an interesting story on how the Proteas helped preserve West Indies great Brian Lara’s Test record for the highest individual score. Notably, Lara recently celebrated the 19th anniversary of the day he scored the historic knock (400*) against England in Antigua in 2004.

Speaking on the franchise’s YouTube channel, Steyn stated that SRH head coach Lara got nostalgic about his record innings. He further revealed the chain of events on how Sri Lanka great Mahela Jayawardene was on the cusp of breaching the historic record in a Test match against the Proteas in July 2006.

“I literally just looked at him (Brian Lara) and said, ‘You’re welcome. You still have your record due to South Africa’. Mahela (Jayawardene) and (Kumar) Sangakkara are batting together, Sangakkara is on strike. We never sniffed a wicket in that entire time,” Steyn told on SRH’s YouTube channel.

“At Tea on day three, we’d been fielding for two and a half days in the sun. Ashwell (Prince, who was captain on the tour) and the South Africans all get together and our team talk was not about how we’re gonna draw or win this game. Mahela was on 370 somewhere and we just said, ‘We need to do anything possible to make sure he didn’t break Brian Lara’s record,” he added.

As Jayawardene closed in on the 400-run mark, the Proteas somehow managed to hand the blow, dismissing him just 26 runs short. 

“We come out of the tea. Andre Nel is the bowler. And I’ve been fielding at mid-off for most of this game. I’d seen everything happen in this game at mid-off. I think he had run every milestone to me. I think he just blocked the ball and ran to me at this point,” shared Steyn.

“Nel ran in, he dragged one short, it was halfway down the pitch. I basically looked at the square leg because the bulk of the time that was where the ball was going. And for some crazy weird reason this ball didn’t get higher than ankle height and it castled Mahela’s stumps and we got him out for 374″, he concluded.

While Lara’s 400* is still intact, Jayawardene’s 374 remains to be the fourth-highest individual score in Test history. Meanwhile, Lara, who has scores of 400* and 375, features in the top-four list twice, whereas Matthew Hayden’s 380-run knock against Zimbabwe in 2003 is the second-highest individual score in Test history.