West Indies captain Brian Lara plays through the offside during his innings of 122 at Queen's Park Oval yesterday. - Dellmar PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD, CMC:
BRIAN Lara's superb first Test hundred on his home ground gave Australia a scare but the visitors were far too professional and committed, eventually completing a 118-run victory on the stroke of tea on the final day of the Second Cable and Wireless Test against the West Indies in Port of Spain yesterday.
The result, Australia's eighth consecutive Test win over the Caribbean side, gives them an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-match series and ensures they retain the Frank Worrell Trophy for the third series in a row.
Set an improbable target of 407, Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan gave the Queen's Park Oval crowd hope in a 106-run fourth-wicket partnership at almost a run-a-minute.
However the dismissal of Sarwan for 34 just after lunch, lobbing a mistimed pull off Andy Bichel to mid-on, triggered a slide which saw five wickets going down for 25 runs and eventual dismissal for 288.
Included in that procession was Lara, whose 122 will be remembered as one of the finest of his 20 Test centuries.
This effort, his eighth against Australia, was embellished with exquisite shots, delicate deflections and resolute defence. Once he was there, having resumed on 52 overnight, a winning score never before achieved in the long history of Test cricket seemed possible.
Mindful of the disappointment of the first innings, when he was bowled round his legs by Brad Hogg for 91, the captain endured a fearsome assault from Brett Lee when in the nineties. The tearaway fast bowler strained every muscle in search of extreme pace and bounce and only Lara's supreme skill and reflexes allowed him to survive, although he took a few painful blows on the body along the way.
The long wait eventually ended 20 minutes before lunch when he stroked Stuart MacGill to the long-on boundary for his 12th four. His innings, which also included a six, had spanned 227 minutes and 165 deliveries at that stage.
As the thousands rose to acclaim the landmark, Lara responded by dropping his helmet and bat, turning to applaud all sections of the ground for their unstinting support through the many ups and downs of his mercurial career.
RARE LAPSE
MacGill should have had the wicket of Sarwan in that frenetic morning session but Matthew Hayden committed a rare lapse at first slip, failing to hold on to the chance diving to his right.
The leg-spinner eventually ended Lara's resistance as his top-edged cut was snared by Hayden for his third catch of the innings. By then, the collapse was well on the way, Bichel adding the scalps of Marlon Samuels (1) and Dave Bernard (4) to his dismissal of Sarwan, finishing with three for 21.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Carlton Baugh was in no mood to offer any resistance, slicing a wild swipe off Hogg to cover. Vasbert Drakes finished unbeaten on 26 as 50 runs were added for the last two wickets.
However, it merely delayed the inevitable which came with Lee prompting Mervyn Dillon to edge to gully and Gillespie trapping Pedro Collins LBW for his third wicket of the innings and sixth of the match.
In a contest that produced 1510 runs and five individual centuries, it was inevitable that Man of the Match honours would go to a batsman. Australian vice-captain Ricky Ponting earned the nod of adjudicator Andy Ganteaume on the strength of his career-best 206 in the first innings.
