The West Indian bowlers, meanwhile, continued to err in line and length, and the batsmen took full toll. Picking off singles easily, the duo brought up their hundred partnership off 161 balls. Leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine bore the brunt of this aggression, going both around and over the wicket to no avail.

Captain Carl Hooper had no option, therefore, but to return to his best bowler. True to form thus far in the innings, Afridi survived a chance yet again, this time courtesy of the umpire. Both bowler and wicket-keeper were so sure of an inside edge that they did not even bother to appeal, but Afridi stood his ground and the umpire seemed equally reluctant to send him packing. The replays indicated that the noise could have been nothing but bat hitting ball.

Again sticking to the trend of proceedings thus far, Afridi immediately rubbed salt into the open wound, hitting a six off Ramnarine and then delicately cutting successive Hooper deliveries to the fence. The swashbuckling batsman was by now the unquestioned spearhead of the Pakistani assault, pouncing with glee on every bad ball and defending the rare good ones with a solidity that fans of his one-day mien would have been surprised to witness.

Pakistan raced along for the first 12 overs at more than 5 per over, with the well-set batsmen being particularly harsh on the spinners. Younis Khan reached his sixth Test fifty off 107 balls, extending his recent consistent run of form.

Afridi reached his second Test hundred, off 136 balls, just a few minutes later. He was joined in his firebrand ways by Younis Khan; reaching his fifty seemed to have an unshackling effect on the batsman, and he gave vent by pulling two boundaries off Pedro Collins. Just after the pair set a new record for the Pakistani second wicket against the West Indies, Younis hit a glorious straight six off the wretchedly unlucky Ramnarine.

The partnership, however, was broken in the next over. Trying to pull Cameron Cuffy, Afridi misread the length and the ball clipped the top of off-stump to send the batsman back for 107 off 149 deliveries.

Tea was taken with Pakistan on 215/2, Younis Khan looking good for a century on 88 and Inzamam-ul-Haq unbeaten on 3.

No such assault ensued, however. Afridi took his own time to get off the mark, doing so finally by essaying a flowing drive through cover for four. Taufeeq Umar was outscoring his partner when, with the scoreboard on 12, he fell to a sharp catch at short-leg off Mervyn Dillon, the ball taking an inside edge onto pad and the into the hands of Darren Ganga.

The West Indian bowlers continued to impress in the first hour of play, beating the bat of Afridi repeatedly with bounce and pace. Pedro Collins, the left-arm seamer, was a fine foil to the more attacking Dillon at the other end.

Afridi continued to struggle against the pacemen, not being able to deal with the seam and bounce of the bowlers as is his wont in the shorter version of the game - with untempered aggression. Younis Khan, on the other hand, played with all the confidence of a man with big scores behind him.

The partnership flourished, however, and Hooper brought Dillon back into the attack after his first five-over spell, hoping that he could take a wicket where Collins and Cameron Cuffy could not. Dillon almost repaid his captain's confidence immediately when he had Afridi flashing hard at a ball outside the off-stump. Dinanath Ramnarine, at gully, put the head-high chance down; dropped catches were the bane of the West Indian performance in the first Test, and they look like continuing that trend in the second game as well.

Ramnarine would have rued his error further when he was smacked for three boundaries in his first over by Afridi, two deliveries swept to square leg and the third played to fine leg. Afridi's mini-assault on the leg-spinner brought up the 50-run partnership off 97 balls.

Hooper may have been livid with Ramnarine, but the very next over shifted the attention onto the West Indian captain himself. Dillon, bowling with control and impeccable line, had Afridi edging a delivery, only for Hooper to put down a regulation second-slip catch low to his left.

Last over before lunch or not, Afridi chose it to revert to his one-day mode, launching a Ramnarine delivery high and long for six over long-off, thrashing another for four over cover, and then blasting a third for another six to mid-wicket.

Pakistan went in to lunch after a slow first session on 91/1, with Afridi batting on 49 and Younis Khan on 34. The West Indian appetites, however, may be just a tad blunted by the thoughts of dropping an increasingly ominous-looking Afridi twice in the game already.

The West Indies, already having to win this second Test to just level this series, have been further handicapped by injury woes. Gritty middle-order batsman Sherwin Campbell has been forced to drop out with a fractured finger, and his replacement batsman in the squad, Marlon Samuels, is scheduled to undergo keyhole surgery on his knee soon.

Forced to field an extra bowler, therefore, the West Indian think-tank have opted for leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine, who they will hope can use any turn in the pitch to tie the Pakistanis down more than in the first Test.

Pakistan went for a fairly predictable change, leaving out a woefully clueless Naved Latif and including aggressive bat and useful leg-break bowler Shahid Afridi.

Teams:

West Indies: Carl Hooper (captain), Darren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Wavell Hinds, Ryan Hinds, Ridley Jacobs (wicket-keeper), Mervyn Dillon, Cameron Cuffy, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore

Pakistan: Waqar Younis (captain), Taufeeq Umar, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq, Rashid Latif, Saqlain Mushtaq, Danish Kaneria, Shoaib Akhtar