West Indies plunge to defeat despite Lara ton

LAHORE, Nov 14 (Reuters) 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 today.

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 nine for 164 after his five for 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 that included 192 from Mohammad Yousuf in response to the visitors' disappointing total of 206 on the first day.

TELEVISION REPLAYS West Indies were at the rough end of some controversial umpiring decisions by Sri Lankan Asoka de Silva which looked questionable on television replays.

His decision not to refer a line-stumping appeal when Mohammad Yousuf was batting on 53 significantly swelled Pakistan's first-innings total.

West Indies lost their last six wickets for 53 runs either side of tea after Lara, resuming on 28 with his team on 74 for three, had put on 137 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul (81).

His dismissal on 238 trapped leg before by part-time spinner Hafeez after a mixture of astute defence and superb stroke play when he hit 19 fours saw the innings fold up quickly.

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

Lara said he had gone out to bat for the whole day but it did not happen.

''Losing six wickets before lunch on the first day put us behind in this game. We didn't apply ourselves after winning the toss,'' Lara said.

''We have to just move on and remain optimistic. We have the bowlers to take 20 wickets. We have to get enough runs on the board.'' Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin fell before tea and Chanderpaul went by miscuing a pull to deep midwicket after scoring his 39th half century.

Pakistan's Shahid Nazir took six for 105 in the match.

The second test starts on Sunday in Multan.

REUTERS DH KP1836