Dravid praises Lara for gritty century

St Lucia: Indian captain Rahul Dravid praised his West Indies counterpart Brian Lara for the battling century which steered the hosts to a draw in the second Test on Wednesday.

"We knew we had a chance if we could get some wickets early on. We did that, but Lara played really well. It was a fantastic innings under pressure," Dravid told reporters after Lara's 120 took West Indies to 294 for seven after they were forced to follow on 373 runs behind.

"He batted beautifully and played our spinners really well," Dravid added.

India were denied victory in the first test in Antigua by West Indies' last-wicket pair, but Dravid said his team were still optimistic about winning the four-Test series.

"We had a chance towards the end here as well but we should be positive about the two games. We dominated three days in Antigua and four days here. The boys should be proud and happy with what they've achieved," Dravid said.

Lara was thrilled by his innings after a poor recent run. "I haven't scored some runs for a while and I knew I had to be a lot more consistent for my team mates.

All in all, I enjoyed the innings. It showed me the patience I need to see out the remainder of the series and I'm going to try as much as possible to ensure that I bat in the same way," Lara said.

The West Indies captain, who hails from Trinidad, said he had drawn inspiration from his country's excellent start at soccer's World Cup in Germany when they held Sweden to a 0-0 draw.

"Watching the Soca Warriors, they had to battle 90 minutes for a draw. We had 98 overs to do it. That was the reason why we got out there and tried to do it," Lara said.

"We knew that we could not win the game, we just had to survive. The gods smiled on us yesterday, we had a free day and it was nice to see us survive," Lara added.

Rain washed out the fourth day's play in St Lucia, with Lara, Test cricket's leading run scorer, resuming his innings on 15 not out.

"I wasn't concentrating on a hundred. I just thought I needed to bat as long as possible and the first two-and-a-half hours before lunch were very vital," the record-breaking left-hander said.

The teams move on to St Kitts for the third test starting on June 22.