Thursday, November 23, 2006

MULTAN, Pakistan (AFP): Hard-working Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria said Wednesday he hoped to learn from being thrashed by West Indian batting king Brian Lara in the second Test here.

"I dont think getting hit by the worlds number one batsman is a failure on my part. In fact, it helps me to learn more about my bowling," said Kaneria, who was taken to the sword by Lara who hit an epic 216 on the fourth day.

Lara's double hundred -- his ninth in 130 Tests - was enough to help the West Indies post a mammoth 591 and take a first-innings lead of 234 runs over Pakistan.

Pakistan, fighting to keep their 1-0 lead in the three-match series, finished the fourth day on 213-2, still needing another 21 runs to avoid an innings defeat.

Kaneria had to bear the brunt as Lara, who reached his 34th hundred off just 77 balls, took 69 off Kaneria's 29 deliveries. The swashbuckling left-hander hit Kaneria for three sixes and two boundaries to take 26 off one over on Tuesday.

"I wanted to block him and stop his scoring. He is a fantastic timer of the ball. He sees the ball from my hand and reads it so well which are signs of a great player. I wanted to trap him but he was thinking ahead of me.

"Not many bowlers have escaped punishment from his hands, so it was nothing strange."

Lara finally holed out off Kaneria, who finished with 5-181. Despite the mauling, the 25-year-old Kaneria said he was not disheartened.

"I came with a positive frame of mind this morning. I just wanted to bowl positively. The wicket has nothing for the spinners. It is a flat track and very slow," said Kaneria.

Kaneria now has 177 wickets in 42 Tests and is joint tenth with fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz in Pakistan's wicket takers' list, headed by famed paceman Wasim Akram with 414.

Kaneria, who is the only Hindu in the team, said the wicket was not conducive for bowlers.

"Playing at home we should adopt our home conditions and prepare wickets accordingly and in the winter seasons in Punjab it is difficult to make good wickets but the wickets should offer advantage to the home team.

"Curators have to work harder to produce better pitches," said Kaneria, who said his captain Inzamam-ul-Haq gave him great encouragement.

"Inzamam offered a lot of support. Cricket is a fluctuating game and it's not always your day. We werent negative today and we just wanted to play positively which I think we did with our batting," said Kaneria.

"We have saved Test matches before and we can also save this one, if we bat properly."

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