Mulder: Lara told me I should have gone for the record

South Africa allrounder Wiaan Mulder has said Brian Lara told him that he should have attempted to break the record for the highest individual score in Test cricket during the second Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.

Mulder, South Africa's stand-in captain for the match, was batting on 367 at lunch on the second day when he declared the innings. He finished 33 short of Lara's record of 400 not out against England in Antigua in 2004.

"Brian Lara keeping that record is exactly the way it should be," Mulder had said after declaring the innings. But he later revealed that Lara had different views.

"Now that things have settled a little bit, I've chatted a little bit to Brian Lara," Mulder told SuperSport. "He said to me I'm creating my own legacy and I should have gone for it. He said records are there to be broken and he wishes if I'm ever in that position again, I actually go and score more than what he had.

"That was an interesting point of view from his side, but I still believe I did the right thing and respecting the game is the most important part for me."

Mulder's 367 not out is the highest individual score for South Africa, and the fifth highest overall. He said that South Africa's head coach Shukri Conrad had told him, "Listen, let the legends keep the really big scores." South Africa went on to win the Test inside three days, by an innings and 236 runs.

Earlier this week, Chris Gayle, who has two Test triples to his name, told talkSPORT that Mulder had "maybe panicked" and made an "error" by not chasing the "once in a lifetime opportunity".

"If I could get the chance to get 400, I would get 400," Gayle said. "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. If you want to be a legend... how are you going to become a legend? Records come with being a legend."