Lara, meanwhile, continued to play his strokes. He used his feet beautifully against Brad Hogg and took some runs off Bracken, who failed to impress in the second spell. Lara used the late cut against Bracken to guide the balls through the vacant slip area.

He brought up his 63rd ODI half-century with a cut to third man, off 62 balls and with the help of seven fours.

In the 34th over, Lara stepped out of his crease to Hogg and cleared the long-off fence comfortably. He went for a similar shot on the next delivery but it rose higher, and just dropped short of Matthew Hayden.

The West Indies last ray of pushing near the target disappeared when Lara departed trying to play another cheeky shot off Hogg. He went onto the backfoot, then pushed forward and ended up taking the delivery on his shins to be dismissed leg before wicket. The partnership between him and Denesh Ramdin was cut short for 49 runs. (156-6)

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