/ 14 November 2006

West Indies plunge to defeat despite Lara ton

A century from captain Brian Lara could not prevent West Indies from tumbling to a nine-wicket defeat by Pakistan on the fourth day of the first Test on Tuesday.

Lara scored a defiant 122 runs, his 33rd Test hundred, but it was not enough to stop West Indies from suffering their 16th defeat in their last 23 Tests since May 2004.

Pakistan lost opener Mohammad Hafeez, trapped leg before by Corey Collymore, before Imran Farhat and Younis Khan completed the formality of scoring 13 runs for victory after West Indies were bowled out for 291 runs shortly after tea.

Young pacer Umar Gul finished with match figures of 9-164 after his 5-65 in the first innings.

Man-of-the-match Gul, who bowled a testing line and got reverse swing on a low-bouncing and slow-paced pitch, made up for the absence of strike bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, banned for a doping offence.

The Test was a personal triumph for the 37-year-old Lara, who made his first hundred in Pakistan at the venue where he made his debut 16 years ago.

The left-hander, who also got a first-innings 61, notched up his third successive century against Pakistan after scoring two against them last year at home.

Pakistan took a big lead of 279 runs in a first-innings total of 485, which included 192 from Mohammad Yousuf in response to the visitors’ disappointing total of 206 on the first day. — Reuters