9th October, 1999: Brian Lara Smashes 45-ball Ton Against Bangladesh

When Brian Lara was at his best, it was hard to stop. Bangladesh discovered this the hard way on this day 20 years ago, when the adventurous hitter hit a ton in just 45 balls, tickets that finally consigned Bangladesh to a 109-run loss. At that time, Lara was the second fastest centurion in ODI cricket, only behind Shahid Afridi who had scored the fastest ton in 37 balls against Sri Lanka in 1996. His hit is now the fifth hundred ODI one hundred fastest, behind Mark Boucher (44 balls), Afridi, Corey Anderson (36 balls) and AB De Villiers (31 balls).



Lara’s blunt blow drove visitors to a score in the first inning of 314 races. In response, the hosts were only able to administer 205 in 49.1 overs.So destructive was the first pair of Lara and Sherwin Campbell that Bangladesh’s middle pacemakers Manjurul Islam and Shafiuddin Ahmed did not launch after the first six strokes. Both Manjur and Shafiuddin gave away 30 and 32 runs respectively in their 3-envelope spells. Manjur only played one after that, while Shafiuddin didn’t even understand that. Habibul Bashar, who fired Lara, was the game’s most successful bowler in Bangladesh, giving away 31 runs in his 10 overs.