Chris Gayle, the legendary West Indies cricketer, couldn't get his head around Wiaan Mulder's decision not to attempt to break Brian Lara's world record of 400, the highest individual Test score or even equal it when he got the closest to doing it than anyone in the last half a decade or even more. Mulder, the stand-in captain for South Africa for the second Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, was unbeaten on 264 overnight and added 103 more runs to his score in the morning session on the second day.
However, the in-break declaration when South Africa had 626 runs on the board surprised any and everyone, especially when Mulder was within touching distance of a record like that, he decided to call the innings off and as per Gayle, Lara's long-time West Indies teammate, who himself has scored a couple of triple hundreds in Tests said that the Proteas all-rounder had to at least try to get to the marker. "Brian Lara is a legend. For someone of that stature to keep that record is deserved," Mulder had said, speaking to Shaun Pollock after the second day's play.
“Come on, you’re on 367, automatically you have to take a chance at the record. If you want to be a legend, how are you going to become a legend? Records come with being a legend,” Gayle told talkSPORT.
“I think it was an error from his side, not to try and go to get it. We don’t know if he would go on and get it or not. But he declared on 367, and he said what he had to say. But listen, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get 400 runs in a Test match. Come on, youngster, you’ve blown it big time!," Gayle added, saying that if he were in Mulder's position, he would have gone for 400 because such an opportunity won't come to him anytime soon.
“If I could get the chance to get 400, I would get 400. That doesn’t happen often. You don’t know when you’re going to get to a triple century again. Any time you get a chance like that, you try and make the best out of it,” the 45-year-old added while mentioning that the all-rounder panicked, not knowing what to do in the situation, while commending his generosity that he wanted the record to stay with Lara.
Many felt that Mulder may not have done so because the opposition was Zimbabwe, who may not be the best opposition the world, especially when he mentioned during the conversation for SuperSport that Lara did it against England but Gayle called out the naysayers saying that it is Test cricket and he got the chance against them so be it, he should have gone ahead and done it.
“It’s the same cricket, Test cricket. Sometimes you can’t even get one run against a team like Zimbabwe, if you want to put it that way. It doesn’t matter the opponent, if you get 100 against any team, that’s a Test century. If you get a double or triple, 400, that’s Test cricket. That’s the ultimate game. Like I said, he panicked and he blundered, straight up," he further said.
Zimbabwe could only muster 170 and 220 in their two innings as South Africa won the Test matches by an innings and 236 runs and clinched the series 2-0, with Mulder walking away with a Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards.
