Ton-up Lara turning table on Pakistan

MULTAN—West Indies captain Brian Lara cruised to an unbeaten hundred off 77 balls to guide his team to 312 for four wickets till lunch on day three of the test her eat Multan on Tuesday. West Indies began innings from the solid foundation of 151/0, however, it was the fifth over of the day three when gutsy Danish Kaneria got Chris Gayle pinned before the stumps after addition of only ten more to the Windies total.
He was replaced by Lara, who began batting in aggressive style hitting every ball that deserved punishment. He hit twelve boundaries, including three successive boundaries off Kaneria, and five sixes in his innings till lunch. Kaneria again struck in the 78th over of the innings and this time it was Darren Ganga who was adjudged LBW at the individual score of 82. Morton then joined Lara and they both build a partnership of 61, however, at this point Umar Gull got Morton pinned before stumps. Chanderpaul who was playing his 100th test was trapped by Shahid Nazir in the 85th over of the innings with Abdul Razzaq completing the catch.
Becoming only the sixth batsman to speed to a century before lunch, Lara gave a lesson in the art of destroying legspin. His 34th Test century, the ninth-fastest ever, included a belligerent attack on Danish Kaneria, plastering him for 60 runs off the 29 balls he faced before lunch. Having equalled Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of hundreds, he went on to break Don Bradman’s record for the most 150-plus scores and, at the end of the day, stood just four adrift of his ninth double-hundred. Pakistan had a window of opportunity in the first session, snapping up four wickets amid the Lara carnage, but there was hardly any joy for the next two. The superb 200-run partnership between Lara and Bravo - both from Santa Cruz, one nicknamed the “Big Dog” and the other the “New Big Dog” - thwarted them for most of the day. A couple of close umpiring calls going against them, apart from a tough slip catch and stumping chance going down, didn’t help matters. Kaneria returned with an impressive third spell, in which he removed Bravo with a ripping legbreak, but there was absolutely nothing he could do against Lara, who reeled off his fourth successive century against Pakistan. The dismantling operation began with the 11th ball he faced, sashaying down the track and lofting Kaneria straight into the sight-screen, and it was complete in the 25th over of the morning. Four pendulum-smooth swings of the bat - depositing the ball to long-off, midwicket, long-on and the roof straight behind the bowler’s arm - and one swat down midwicket resulted in the phone-number sequence of 406664. It was the second time that Lara had scored more than 25 in an over, after his Robin Peterson bashing at Johannesburg three years ago. In between, Kaneria went through 13 overs that cost 83 runs; 29 of those balls to Lara were whiplashed for 60.
Kaneria, who’d dismissed both the openers with well-pitched legbreaks earlier in the day, didn’t bowl anywhere as bad as his figures suggested; one man’s mastery just left him clueless. The legbreaks were picked on the half-volley and the extension of the bat after striking the ball helped it soar way over the boundary. With extraordinary body balance, a perfect arm-swing and hand-eye co-ordination that few batsmen possess, Lara was simply unstoppable. Out of the 58 that he added with Ganga, Lara’s contribution was 36; the corresponding figure for his 61-run partnership with Runako Morton, in just 31 balls, was an awesome 56. The Bravo union was more evenly distributed, mainly because he chose to shift one gear lower, allowing the apprentice a chance to express himself. Bravo picked up the lead and didn’t hold back, especially against the medium-pacers. Shahid Nazir was punished when he strayed in line and Kaneria’s torment continued, at the receiving end of three spanking fours in an over.—Agencies