da dobrowin： Of the 33 hundreds from which Brian Lara must have derived personal pleasure, only eight have allowed him and the West Indies to rejoice collectively
Osman Samiuddin14-Nov-2006
‘There are still ten days of Testcricket to be played and we are still optimistic of a series win here’ © AFP
Of the 33 hundreds from which Brian Lara must have derived personalpleasure, only eight have allowed him and the West Indies to rejoicecollectively. In crafting his third successive hundred against Pakistan,similar feelings must have hovered. His graceful 122 was not enough toprevent a nine-wicket defeat against Pakistan.”I was looking to play a long innings, but unfortunately it didn’thappen,” Lara said. “When I went out to bat today I wanted tobat the whole day and even tomorrow. That’s why I didn’t take off myhelmet when I completed the century.”In forging a 137-run partnership with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the brief possibility of an unlikely escape appeared, albeit fleetingly. As Lara admitted, had the partnership lasted a little longer, possibilities would have opened up. “If we had added a further 50-60 runsand batted tomorrow there could’ve been something. We looked pretty goodfor a session-and-a-half and thought we would take the game into the fifthday.”That stretching the game into another day, and a draw, was the extent oftheir ambition was the result of a first day gone wrong, “a turning point”as both captains later said. “We knew it was a bit misty and theconditions didn’t clear as quickly as we wanted to, but we did play somereally poor shots in our meagre total,” said Lara, now third in theall-time leading century-makers in Tests behind Sachin Tendulkar (35) andSunil Gavaskar.”You can’t expect to be bowled out on the first day of a Test because youare then asking your bowlers to do a Herculean job to get yourselves backinto the game. When you win the toss you are thinking of batting over 150overs and we were nowhere near that.” If we had added a further 50-60 runsand batted tomorrow there could’ve been something. We looked pretty goodfor a session-and-a-half and thought we would take the game into the fifthday Brian LaraMuch of the positive vibes humming around the West Indies preceding this Test had emanated from their stirring ODI revival; they made the final of both a triangularseries in Malaysia and the Champions Trophy in Mumbai. Australia had beendefeated during each run, though ultimately the same team proved onehurdle too far.Their Test form stands in stark contrast: following today’s defeat, they have one win in 15. The ability to switch between the two formats has been questioned during this Test. “We have to try and adjust as quickly as possible. It’s tough because we’ve been playing one-day cricket for the last two months and just a two-day game before this Test.It’s not an excuse but hopefully we will get better in the remaining twoTests.”The optimist in him refuses to rule out a turnaround – and why not? Afew very poor, and critical, decisions, the odd spilled catch and adifferent game awaited but Lara refused to blame the umpiring. “They arepart of the game and you have to accept them,” Lara said. “Some days tough decisions goagainst you and some days they don’t. There are still ten days of Testcricket to be played and we are still optimistic of a series win here.”We have to fire ourselves, we have to dig deep and show a lot morecharacter than we showed in this Test.” All of that he did, with 61 in thefirst innings as well as his hundred. He’ll be hoping for the same from afew more of his team-mates as they head to the dust of Multan, where thesecond Test begins on November 19.