Lara's lone fight

For a long time Brian Lara has been fighting a lone battle for West Indies © AFP

So Brian Lara chose not to graft, instead attempting an astonishing counter-surge. Statistically, the strike rate suggests it wasn't a blazing hand but all the while he was there fantastical outcomes were being imagined. Recollections of the lone hand against Australia in 1998-99 and other skyscraper scores; had he stayed till the lead was eaten up, who knows?

For everyone knows, remembering six doubles, one triple and one quadruple, he bats big. And once he's settled, the run-rate is entirely of his choosing, irrespective of what is around and up against him. Yesterday afternoon he was in a hurry and in the morning was brisk enough before calming down, intent undoubtedly on a tall score. Safety was the aim then, but sensing a subtle shift in momentum as the afternoon wore on sans casualties, he tore away after lunch and at that point, as he was merrily caning Danish Kaneria, Pakistan's fears were heightened.

The pace was manoeuvred but at no point was it at the expense of the central beauty of his game. That back lift, golf-like it was once written, paused and poised briefly at the top of its arch, is almost as compelling as the shots that it eventually manufactures. The real wonder is how he coordinates so many movements - the shuffling, the back lift, the bendy wrists twitching at the death to find gaps, lifting the knee while pulling - into just one picturesque image.

The significance of occasion is not lost upon him, greeting his second fifty in Pakistan with a fluid, stand-still straight drive and celebrating his 33rd century by rising to the top of his toes and whipping a cut square. Much, much more to admire lay within, off pace, leg-spin, part-time spin, medium pace but one cover drive, leaning so far forward so as to look overbalanced at point of contact, was stupendous. If you Photoshopped the ball out of the image, you'd think he was falling over.

If there is an element of regret to Lara's career, it is that so rarely have his efforts amounted to much. Only eight of his 33 hundreds have helped sculpt victory and the fact that this was only a ninth second-innings hundred is not to blame. Support around him for periods when he was at his peak has been notoriously thin, and sadly once he fell, collapse too ensued.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has striven more than many, though the spotlight has not always found him. Next Sunday in Multan he is likely to be playing his 100th Test, through which he has maintained a mid-40s average. Similarities with Lara extend only to the LHB that denotes their batting style but the description 'crabby' that often accompanies him is undeserved.

His stance is not usual, sure (though less front-on now than recently), but he is a deceptively pure timer of strokes, a touch player if ever. Unlike Lara, bowlers find a defensive nudge from Chanderpaul gathers steam on the way to the boundary. The touch was in evidence today, despite the hindrance of an ongoing bout of food poisoning and dehydration.

If there is an element of regret to Lara's career, it is that so rarely have his efforts amounted to much

None of it has been helped by the much-mourned decline in their fast bowling stable though in Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards there is hope yet. Conversely, for Pakistan, the absence of fast bowlers generally only denotes that another is ready to be plucked out from hiding. In the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, and then some, few people reckoned Pakistan could take 20 West Indian wickets. Shahid Nazir and Umar Gul sharing 15 of those was a longer shot still.

Not only in terms of wickets were they the most successful but they looked throughout the two most likely to do anything. Bennett King said yesterday, of Pakistan's bowling, that they were particularly adept on these pitches: he might have been speaking specifically of Nazir. His first morning spell set up the Test and once Lara had departed, the tail was his for the taking.

And though it doesn't happen as much as it should - especially when a batsman scores a near double century - for once a bowler got the match award and richly deserving Gul was too. The nine wickets clinched it, but his spell just after lunch, with Lara and Chanderpaul set, would've added to his claim. With a 60-overs-old ball, he trumped the latter repeatedly from round the wicket, drawing him in with the angle before passing by, his outside edge, unfortunately, untouched. The awkwardness of his early matches is gone, in only his 12th Test, replaced by an assured, chirpy confidence.

A disgruntled few will also say, with some justification, one umpire deserved the award. Asoka de Silva's comeback wasn't memorable, almost all his poor decisions went against West Indies and mostly at crucial junctures. And that kind of support, when you're Brian Lara, you can do without.