Lara the fastest to Test milestone
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- West Indies captain Brian Lara made a defiant century and became the fastest batsman to 9,000 Test runs, in the third Test at Newlands on Sunday.
But South Africa still finished the third day in a strong position, reaching 38 for no wicket in their second innings -- an overall lead of 143.
Earlier Lara hit 115, his 24th Test century, in a total of 427 as the tourists bid to avoid a repeat of the whitewash defeat suffered in a five-match series in South Africa five seasons ago.
When he was on 84, Lara became the fifth player to score 9,000 Test runs, achieving the feat faster than any of the other four -- Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.
He was playing his 177th innings. The previous fastest was Tendulkar of India, who reached the milestone against Australia in his 179th innings in Sydney on Friday.
South Africa lead the current four-match series 2-0 and Lara suppressed his normal flair,
taking 170 minutes and 134 balls to reach his 50 and 306 minutes and 224 balls for his hundred.
He took more than an hour to progress through the nineties and was stuck on 99 for an agonising 25 minutes, although he faced only 12 balls in that time before hooking Jacques Kallis for the only six of his innings.
He hit 16 fours before he swung across the line against fast bowler Andre Nel to be last man out. Nel took five for 87, his first five-wicket haul in Tests.
South Africa's bowlers came back strongly after taking a battering on Saturday when the West Indies raced to 178 for one in 35 overs, with Chris Gayle slamming a 79-ball century.
Gayle, who was unbeaten on 112 off 105 balls overnight, added only four more runs off 15 deliveries before padding up to Shaun Pollock to be out leg before wicket.
With 10 overs remaining in the day after the tourists were all out, South Africa signalled
their intention with some aggressive strokeplay by skipper Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs at the start of the second innings.
Smith was lucky when with his score on four he hooked Fidel Edwards and Adam Sanford, running around the boundary at deep backward square leg, allowed the ball to slip through his hands and go for four.
