Lara (83) thrills Kiwi fans

By lunch, with Lara’s inspiration, the West Indies had reached 224 for four. Daren Ganga was bowled by Shane Bond, with a slow yorker, for 38 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul was run out by the length of the pitch for two.

But Runako Morton was 49 not out, Dwayne Bravo was 12 and the West Indies had enjoyed their most profitable period of the series. Lara, the world’s leading run-scorer in Tests, was cut off 17 runs short of his 32nd Test century when he attempted to pull a lobbing, short-pitched ball from Nathan Astle which took the bottom edge of his bat, hit the back of his leg and rolled back onto his stumps.

For the previous two hours and 22 minutes at McLean Park, Lara had entertained New Zealand cricket followers with a classic demonstration of the qualities of concentration, grit, co-ordination and technique which have defined his career as cricket’s most prolific scorer.

Lara showed all of those hallmark qualities as he built his most substantial innings of the three-Test series, after his dismissals for 5, 0, 1 and 1 in the first two Tests.

His four innings in the series prior to Saturday had jointly lasted 50 minutes and 23 balls and in the second innings of the First Test at Auckland he was bowled for a firstball duck.

The most notable feature of his innings here was that no batsman but Lara, who has always defied categorisation, could have made as many runs as quickly when he was so patently out of form.

The early part of Lara’s innings, particularly the 71 minutes he spent at the crease yesterday scratching out 28 runs by stumps, was an almost painful battle to survive.

But on the second day, Lara seemed likely to go on to another of the major innings that punctuate his career when he was out in such unusual circumstances.

There were still periods of discomfort and New Zealand fast bowler Bond sat Lara on his backside with one glorious bouncer which reared towards his chin, jerked back his head and sent him sprawling with gloves, bat and feet in all directions.

But Lara coped with bowling of all lengths and speeds with new confidence and certainty. He took many of his runs square, or just backward of square on the offside and on many of those occasions, took his top hand from the bat as he steered the ball wide of point and gully.

But he also showed delicacy and power, rising on his toes to clip the ball through midwicket, or leaning onto the back foot, with perfect balance, to crush the ball through midoff or extra cover. (AP)