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West Indies-Pakistan third Test today

KARACHI: The West Indian captain Brian Lara said on Sunday his team was ready for make or break in the final Test against Pakistan and would stop prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf from achieving a World record.

``One of the motivating factors in the last day at Multan was we started thinking about winning against teams like Australia, Pakistan and South Africa,'' said Lara, ahead of the third Test which starts here from Monday.

The West Indies was trailing 1-0 in the three-match series following their nine-wicket defeat in the first match in Lahore. The second Test at Multan ended in a draw. Once a major power in international cricket, the West Indies has not won an away Test against a major country, minus Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, since its win over England at Edgbaston in 2000.

Its last series win came against New Zealand in 1995 and since then it has lost 38 of its 44 away Tests against major opposition, with five draws and one win.

The tourist was unlucky not to win the second Test at Multan. It dropped a crucial catch off Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf to help the home team escape with a draw.

``We had a hard fought draw minus dropped catches, and I think we are heading towards the right direction and hope to make it happen sooner rather than later and we are looking forward this time,'' said Lara, who promised to come down hard on prolific Yousuf.

``Yousuf is of course challenging the World record of Vivian Richards, but we would like Richards to continue holding the record of most runs in a calendar year so we'll be coming really hard at him,'' said Lara.

The teams (from):

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt.), Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Yasir Hameed, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Faisal Iqbal, Umar Gul, Shahid Nazir, Samiullah Niazi, Mohammad Sami and Danish Kaneria.

West Indies: Brian Lara (capt.), Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Runako Morton, Lendl Simmons, Denesh Ramdin, Dave Mohammed, Dwayne Bravo, Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards and Omari Banks. — Agencies

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