MULTAN, Nov 21: Pakistan were left battling for survival after a truly magnificent Brian Lara century put West Indies in control of the second Test against Pakistan at the Multan Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old West Indies captain stole the thunder on a record-laden third day to stroke a majestic 196 not out and guide his side to an imposing 509 for five in their first innings in reply to Pakistan’s 357.

Lara’s masterly hundred, his 34th in 130 Tests, not only enabled him to join Sunil Gavaskar in the list of century-makers but was also his fourth successive century against Pakistan following two in the West Indies last year and a brilliant 122 in the second innings of last week’s Lahore Test.

Partnering Lara at the draw of stumps was wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin with four to his name. With Lara still going great guns, the visitors who are currently 152 runs in front, are in a commanding position to dictate terms in the remaining six sessions available.

Pakistan were clearly outplayed on this third day as the West Indies scored 358 runs in the three sessions to post their highest total in Pakistan since there 493 in the Karachi Test of the 1974-75 series.

Although it was Lara’s day of brutal dominance – his was the seventh quickest century in terms of deliveries faced (77 balls all told) – young all-rounder Dwayne Bravo also came to the party to make a vital contribution of 89 during a record West Indies fifth-wicket partnership against Pakistan.

Lara and Bravo batted together for 219 minutes to put on exactly 200, obliterating the previous best of 185 between Everton Weekes and Collie Smith at Bridgetown in the inaugural Test between these teams way back in 1957-58.

Pakistan just about restored some parity in the closing overs when Danish Kaneria deceived Bravo (177 balls, 11 boundaries) with a well-flighted leg-break which caught the outside edge of the bat and carried to Younis Khan at slip.

It was creditable on Kaneria’s part to regain his composure after the mauling he received from Lara who slammed him for 60 runs off just 29 deliveries in a devastating period in the morning.

The master batsman raced from 30 to 56 in one Kaneria over, leaving the leggie shell-shocked as he was blasted for 4, 0, 6, 6, 6, and 4. Altogether the maestro decorated his 230-ball innings with seven sixes – five of them off Kaneria and the rest off Shoaib Malik — and 21 sweetly-timed fours.

It is a pity that only a few thousand people were present inside the stadium to witness an epic knock from an all-time great batsman.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan skipper, seemed resigned to the fact that there was nothing his hapless bowlers could do to prevent Lara from putting West Indies in the driving seat.

Using his bat like a scimitar, Lara belted Pakistan’s bowlers to all parts of the vast stadium and displayed almost every shot in the cricket’s coaching manual. On a sluggish track as this one here, Lara wisely chose not to hook and when he did, he skied the ball which fell between Mohammad Yousuf and Shahid Nazir in the deep backward area.

The only real chance that he gave was at 131 when Imran Farhat floored an easy catch at first slip.

Having reached his century just before the lunch break, Lara dramatically changed gears in the second session and was more circumspect about his batting. While his first 100 had come in 127 minutes, the next 96 took almost four hours during which Lara negotiated a further 163 balls.

Earlier, Chris Gayle (93) and Daren Ganga (82) extended their opening partnership to 162 resuming at the overnight score of 151. But Gayle added just one more boundary to his overnight 89 before falling seven shy of what would have been his eighth century at Test level. Ganga went in the same way as his partner for a 251-ball 82, after sharing a partnership of 58 with Lara. The right-hander’s 315-minute knock included 12 fours.

Runako Morton, in his fifth Test, failed to cash in on the opportunity of performing better than the axed Ramnaresh Sarwan. The hard-working Umar Gul trapped him in front of the stumps for five.

The stage was set for Shivnarine Chanderpaul to mark his 100th Test appearance with something special. But it was not to be as he pulled Shahid Nazir down Abdul Razzaq’s throat at mid-on.

On a day when records tumbled, Lara became only the third player to pass 1,000 runs in West Indies-Pakistan Tests after Viv Richards and Inzamam-ul-Haq, and despite being in the twilight zone of his cricketing career, displayed that he is still heads and shoulders above all his contemporaries.

Pakistan need to regroup first thing on Wednesday morning as Waqar Younis, the bowling coach, hoped after day three ended. The fact that none of the players turned up at the media briefing was enough to gauge the somber mood in Pakistan camp.

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