Dravid hits ton, India pile up for 65 for 5 at lunch

St Lucia, Jun 11 (UNI) Rahul Dravid struck 146 as India continued a run riot against West Indies and reached 485 for 5 wickets at lunch on day two of the second Test here today.

India continued to build on their good start in the first hour's play on the second day of second Test being played here. Skipper Rahul Dravid completed his ton while Kaif reached his fifty as the two added 68 runs in the first hour. India were 429 for four, with Dravid bating on 119 and Kaif not out on 61. Rahul Dravid played Pedro Collins on the on side for a brace to complete his 23rd Test century.

This has been a completely faultless innings from Dravid on a begin pitch. Even West Indies skipper Brian Lara admitted yesterday that never on one occasion Dravid looked under pressure of any sorts. Considering that the pitch was likely to favour batsmen at least in the first three days, Dravid and Kaif went on to raise another hundred plus partnership in the Indian innings. This was the third hundred plus partnership of the innings.

Runs came fluently as Dravid and Kaif regularly found the gaps.

Kaif ran hard with his skipper and the two converted many singles into double and doubles into three runs to pep up scoring.

Kaif hit Jerome Taylor for a cover boundary to reach his fifty.

Kaif cut loose after his fifty hitting Pedro Collins for two beautiful boundaries on the off side.

Brian Lara looked completely out of any clue on how to stop the run flow. Kaif was not afraid to play in air. He gave half a chance to Pedro Collins when he cut uppishly that just went above the gully fielder for four. The boundary also raised 150 partnership for the fifth wicket. Lara introduced spin in the form of Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan from both the ends.

Lara had outside hopes that the batsmen would take some risks against the slow bowlers. Sarwan didn't let down Lara when Dravid made one mistake of his innings that cost his wicket. Dravid tried to play above backward point but couldn't clear Lara who took a comfortable catch.

Dravid made 146 runs with 16 hits to the fence and raised two big partnerships with Sehwag and Kaif respectively. Kaif on the other end flourished with some superb stroke play and reached close to his first hundred in Test matches. He was batting on 89 off 152 balls with 9 fours.

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