Lara's ton just the right tonic

Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones can only hope that the world's best batsman is feeling rougher still if they bowl against him during next week's First Test at Lord's.

The England pair ran into a flu-suffering Brian Lara at Arundel yesterday and were left shaking their heads after watching him take an unbeaten 113 off the MCC.

Lara, who has been under the weather for a few days, hit 18 fours and two sixes during a classical exhibition of power and precision before retiring for a bit more medication.

Hoggard didn't suffer too badly at the hands of the West Indies captain, conceding just 28 runs from 17 smooth overs, picking up a couple of wickets and going a long way towards proving his fitness following a knee injury.

And Jones, fighting back from a foot problem that caused him to miss two Tests against New Zealand earlier this summer, also declared himself happy, even though his 16 overs went for 75 runs. The pair said that Lara seems in the sort of form he displayed against England in Antigua three months ago when making that world record Test score of 400.

"This wasn't a very seamer friendly pitch but Lara did look in very good touch," said Jones. "I don't think he was feeling the best, which is worrying. If he plays like that when he's not feeling too well I don't know what he'll do when he's 100 per cent."