West Indian batting superstar Brian Lara Saturday became the greatest runscorer in Test cricket during his epic double-century in the third cricket Test against Australia at Adelaide Oval.
The 36-year-old Trinidad great, 12 runs off the record on his overnight score of 202, went past Allan Border's world record aggregate of 11,174 runs early on the second day's play.
Lara's 405-minute masterpiece was finally ended when he was bowled by Glenn McGrath for 226 leaving him with a Test aggregate of 11,187 runs at an average of 54.04 in his 121st Test match.
Lara went into cricket folklore when he flicked a McGrath delivery off his hip to fine leg some 20 minutes into the day's play.
'The Prince,' with his flourishing high backlift and classic strokemaking, raised his bat to the appreciative crowd and was hugged by batting partner Daren Powell in tribute to his achievement.
The Australian players walked over to him to shake his hand and pat him on the back for breaking the record. "Stuff like this, you would love to do it in front of your home crowd, but actually to be here in Australia is great, Allan Border is from Australia," Lara told television as he left the ground at lunch.
"It was really touching to be here and be appreciated by a country I've had great battles with over the years.
"I came here to play four Test matches (including Super Test for World XI) and I like to score 100 runs a Test match ... until Adelaide it looked really dim but I'm really proud of it and I'm really proud to have achieved it."
Border paid tribute to the dazzling left-hander for ending his reign as Test cricket's greatest run-getter.
"Brian is just in a different league to what I was. That's not false modestly. It's just the facts," Border said.
"He had more shots and scored at a much faster rate than I did. There is a tinge of sadness there but I was surprised to hold the record in the first place. I say good luck to him. He deserves it.
"He will remembered as one of the top three or four batsmen of all time and you could argue that apart from Don Bradman he could be the next best." Lara looked dismayed when he was finally out playing away from his stumps to play a cut shot and losing his off-stump some 42 minutes into the day's play.
Lara boosted the struggling West Indian team to a challenging first innings total of 405 in his 298-ball knock embedded with 22 boundaries. The rest of his team contributed just 162 or 40 percent towards the total.
"It's testimony that I've been batting for 15 to 16 years in Test cricket. Anybody who spends that sort of time and is any sort of a decent batsman is going to be in and around certain records," Lara said Friday of the approaching world record.
Lara's statistics back up his cricket eminence. It was his eighth double-century, 31st Test century and ninth against Australia.
Only three players have scored more centuries in Tests than Lara: Indians Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar with 34 and Australian Steve Waugh 32.
Lara has the highest Test score of 400 not out against England in Antigua in April last year and also the third-best score of 375 against England also in Antigua in 1994.
The West Indian great also holds the highest first-class score of 501 not out for English county Warwickshire in 1994.
It was his fifth Test hundred of the year following knocks of 196 and 176 against South Africa and 130 and 153 against Pakistan.
Former Australian captain Border took 156 Tests to set the old record and had held it since his final Test year in 1994.