Lara dazzles amid the gloom

West Indies 292 for 7 (Lara 176, Nel 3-54) v South Africa
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Brian Lara produced his second masterclass in as many matches, but not even his glorious 176 was enough to secure the upper hand for West Indies, as South Africa started and finished the opening day of the third Test in Barbados with a string of new-ball breakthroughs. By the close, West Indies had been whittled down to their tail, as Courtney Browne and Daren Powell attempted to extend the innings towards a par total of 350.

It may have been advantage South Africa, but the day belonged to Lara, and how many times in West Indies' recent history has that been the case? From the start of the day until five overs before the close, his performance first equalled and then surpassed that 196 at Trinidad, as South Africa's seamers were halted in their tracks and made to marvel at the range and audacity of his strokeplay.

Lara's epic began amid a familiar clatter of top-order wickets - for 13 for 2 at Port-of-Spain, read 12 for 3 here, as Andre Nel and Makhaya Ntini tore great chunks out of the West Indian batting. After seven overs, Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were already engaged in a familiar salvage operation, and by lunch, they had restored some order to the innings, batting within themselves - especially in Lara's case - to add a vital unbeaten 48 for the fourth wicket. It was an attritional recovery in a mini-session that was notable only for Bridgetown's first-ever (male) streaker. After lunch, however, the story began to change.

A spanking drive off Jacques Kallis carried Lara to his half-century from 77 balls, and when he followed up next ball with a masterful cut-drive that bisected the field on the cover boundary, it was clear that he had another major statement of intent in mind. Chanderpaul was his usual sedate self, but when he reached his own fifty from 123 balls, Lara took it upon himself to celebrate on his partner's behalf, as Nicky Boje was launched out of the ground for the sweetest of straight-driven sixes.

Boje had claimed Lara's scalp in the second innings at Trinidad, but this time Lara used his feet to perfection, regularly thumping him down the ground - into, round and over the various fielders who were scattered to the edge of the pitch. So long as he had partners, the sky seemed to be the limit of Lara's ambitions, but unfortunately, West Indies are only ever one wicket away from a crisis.

Sure enough, on 53, Chanderpaul cut at a ball from Monde Zondeki that was too close to his body and skimmed a catch to Mark Boucher behind the stumps, and Ryan Hinds's edgy innings ended soon afterwards when he flinched outside off for Boucher to claim another victim. Lara, who had gone to tea on 87, was understandably becalmed through the nineties, and on 99 was copped a painful blow on the shoulder as Kallis bent his back and extracted some sharp lift. But undeterred, Lara nudged one off his hips, to jog through for a single and post a magnificent 28th Test hundred. By the end of the day, 16 of these had been extended past 150.

But, by the end of the day, he was also gone, and in an instant, all of his magnificent work seemed to have been undone. The new ball was once again the key for South Africa, although it didn't appear that way at first, as Lara greeted Nel's first delivery with a searing calypso wallop that scorched through the covers to bring up his next milestone. In his next over, Nel was pulled with disdain in front of square and Lara seemed a dead-cert for 200 by the close, when he got a little too complacent and inside-edged onto his stumps.

At 286 for 6, the day was looking like a near-replica of the opening day in Trinidad, but whereas the sides could not be split on that occasion, this time the upper hand belonged very firmly to South Africa. That was confirmed two runs later, when Dwayne Bravo's defiant innings came to an end - deprived of Lara's blazing strokeplay, he fished at a wide one from Zondeki, and was gone for 26 from 95 painstaking balls. And when Browne was forced to run down the middle of the wicket to intercept Ntini's shy at the stumps, it was clear that West Indies were on the run, Lara's extravaganza notwithstanding.

Gayle c Boucher b Nel 0 (2 for 1)
Beaten by an outswinger that nicked the outside edge on its way to the wicketkeeper

Wavell Hinds c Smith b Ntini 10 (12 for 2)
Trying to cut a moving delivery

Sarwan c Prince b Nel 10 (12 for 3)
Driving uppishly to the covers

Chanderpaul c Boucher b Zondeki 53 (150 for 4)
Top-edged while attempting to cut a wide one

Ryan Hinds c Boucher b Kallis 10 (171 for 5)
Edged to the wicketkeeper while going for a rash drive

Lara b Nel 176 (286 for 6)
Bowled off the inside edge

Bravo c Smith b Zondeki 26 (288 for 7)
Fished at a wide one