A brilliant Brian Lara century was not enough to save the West Indies as Pakistan coasted to a nine-wicket win in the Test match at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.
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The visitors started the day at 3-75 still needing 278 runs to make Pakistan bat again after the hosts compiled an imposing first innings of 485 in reply to West Indies' disappointing first innings of 206.
With Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul sharing a partnership of 137 runs it looked as if the Windies might make a contest of the match. But when Lara fell for a well-made 122 it triggered an all-too familiar collapse in the visitors as they lost their last six wickets for 53 runs and setting Pakistan just 13 runs to get for victory.
The hosts lost Mohammad Hafeez lbw to Corey Collymore before Imran Farhat and Younis Kahn reached the small total for the nine-wicket victory and a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series.
As he has done so many times through his career, Lara was left to save the West Indies innings and he showed why he is Test cricket's greatest run scorer with some sparkling shots, particularly elegant front foot drives through the cover region for many of the 19 boundaries he struck in his 33rd Test century.
Lara eventually was trapped leg before trying to sweep a delivery from Mohammad Hafeez that straightened down the line leaving Chanderpaul as the last hope for the West Indies. But the courageous left-hander was running out of partners as Dwyane Bravo (2) and Denesh Ramdin (1) fell too cheaply.
Chanderpaul eventually mistimed a pull shot from Shahid Nazir to offer a simple catch to Mohammad Yousuf. Umar Gul, who was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers, cleaned up the tail to help set up the emphatic victory.
