West Indies facing defeat despite Lara hundred

LAHORE, Nov 14 (Reuters) West Indies are facing a heavy defeat against Pakistan at tea on day four of the first test today, despite a defiant hundred from skipper Brian Lara.

Lara notched his 33rd test hundred and his third in successive tests against Pakistan, but his dismissal left West Indies struggling on 252 for seven.

They need 27 more runs to avoid an innings defeat with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the last specialist batsman, on a battling unbeaten 66 from 164 balls.

Pakistan had taken a 279-runs lead after totalling 485 runs in reply to the West Indies' first day score of 206.

Lara was trapped leg before by part-time offspinner Mohammad Hafeez after he took the score to 238 in a fifth wicket stand of 137 with Chanderpaul.

He reached his century with a sweetly timed cut to point off pacer Umar Gul from 180 balls.

Surviving a scare on 48, Lara kept Pakistan at bay with some glorious and savage strokes in his first test ton in Pakistan.

Batting for 301 minutes, Lara struck 19 fours, many of them fluent drives through the off-side to the spinners on a slow, low bounced pitch.

His hundred took him into third place in the list of most test centuries behind Indians Sachin Tendulkar (35) and Sunil Gavaskar (34).

Pakistan had a chance to wrap up the match quickly in the over after Lara fell, Chanderpaul (56) danced out to leg spinner Danish Kaneria and missed the ball and but keeper Kamran Akmal fumbled. Chanderpaul made his 39th half century.

In the next over, Imran Farhat put down a simple chance at short leg off Hafeez to give Dwayne Bravo a let off.

But Bravo (2) did not survive much longer and was trapped by Gul before Kaneria had Denesh Ramdin caught (1).

REUTERS SAM BS1604