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Windies in the
Driver's Seat after Lara's monumental hundred! |
November 21, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
 At
the age of almost 38, Brian Charles Lara proved
everyone on Tuesday that he has enough fuel in
his body and the class to still produce the
monumental test innings like he had done in the
past. Walking in at 220 for 2, the Prince of
Trinidad went berserk right from the word go and
he just carried on through the rest of the day
to have his side 152 runs in front of Pakistan's
357.
The great man, Brian Lara is still undefeated
and is a boundary away from a double century.
Inzy's men had to virtually take a cover as
Lara's magical knock helped the batting side to
hammer 358 runs in the 90 overs bowled in the
day's play. It was a century in 77 balls from
the Trinidadian that took just the morning
session and it was a ton that equaled Sunny
Gavaskar's 34 test centuries which is the second
most by any batsman.
West Indies had made a spirited comeback on the
second day's play and they had continued from a
strong overnight score of 151 for no loss. But
they were off to a worst start losing their
match winner Chris Gayle in the fifth over of
the morning after he was deceived in the air to
be caught leg before the wicket off Danish
Kaneria. Gayle could add just the six runs to
his score and he missed out on a truly deserved
century which he could have got a long time back
on the second day had he played his natural
game.
Gayle's departure brought in Lara at no.3 and
the left hander after starting his innings in a
normal fashion all of a sudden jumped down the
track to smash Kaneria's leg break into the
sightscreen for max. All the men around the bat
were stunned to silence. At the other end,
Razzaq was taken for some boundaries by Lara and
the deficit that Windies were facing was coming
down rapidly which each stroke. In the 76th
over, Danish Kaneria was taken for three
consecutive boundaries by the left hander
through some lusty hitting. It didn't stop the
West Indian Skipper to bat the way he was even
though he just lost Ganga at the other end to
Danish Kaneria. Ganga had done exceedingly well
to score 82 having seen 251 balls which is
important as he consumed enough time in the
middle.
The wicket of Ganga didn't deter Lara from
carrying on his onslaught on Kaneria and Razzaq.
A six and a boundary was taken in Kaneria's 28th
over which was followed with three boundaries in
a Razzaq over as Lara took West Indies 100 short
of the Pak total. The 84th over of the innings
was the biggest turning point with the leg
spinner Kaneria smashed for 26 runs! The
sequence of runs in that over was 4, 0, 6, 6, 6
and 4! All those had come from the shining MRF
blade that had 400 written on it. With Brian
Lara's footwork like quicksilver, Kaneria's
length was all over the place and the left
hander was destructive in hitting with the turn.
With those six deliveries, Lara had raced away
to 92 from 63 and he stood a good chance to
record one of the fastest centuries. With
nothing going his way, Inzy decided to take the
second new ball in the 85th over and Umar Gul
gave the breakthrough by having Morton lbw.
To join his Skipper at 282 for 3 was Shiv
Chanderpaul, the man who was playing his 100th
Test. The Guyanese had started to play well and
at the other end, Lara had just lost his
momentum in a big way. He of course did well to
concentrate on getting through the phase rather
than going for a quick hundred. Windies looked
to have lost the initiative when Chanderpaul had
miscued a pull horribly off Nazir to be taken at
mid on. Lara got to his hundred soon, in 77
balls which was the 9th fastest in the history.
It was now shifting down of gears for him and
rebuild the advantage for his side. Fellow
Trinidadian was the perfect partner for Lara in
this cause and the two put on a 200-run
partnership that kept Pakistan at bay for the
next 50 overs or so! Bravo came good for his 89
that came in 177 balls with a dozen hits to the
fence. Ramdin has remained unbeaten on 4 along
with Lara who moved onto 196 in just 230 balls
which had 21 fours and hardly 7 sixes!
Danish Kaneria was Pakistan?s most successful
and most expensive bowler with figures of 3 for
159 from 41 overs! With a lead of 152, Lara
would like his side to get as many runs as
possible on the board and make sure that his
side bats just the one time, the match has now
headed into the fourth day, so time is
definitely running out. West Indies bowlers
would bank on the pressure of having Pakistan
rallying behind a huge first innings deficit.
The wicket has been good for batting, so taking
wickets will not be an easy task once batsmen
apply themselves.
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