GROS ISLET (St Lucia), June 10: Indian opener Virender Sehwag savaged the West Indies bowlers to score 99 not out in the opening session of the second Test on Saturday.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat, India had raced to 140 without loss at lunch.

Sehwag narrowly missed becoming the fifth man to score a century before lunch on the opening day of a Test. The 27-year-old showed brutal aggression and also fine shot selection, blazing 15 fours and two sixes off 75 balls.

Wasim Jaffer was 34 not out to ensure that Sehwag enjoyed plenty of the strike.

Sehwag showed his positive intent when he cut the third ball of the match, from left-arm seamer Pedro Collins, to the boundary and he hit three boundaries off Jerome Taylor in the eighth over.

Sehwag raced to his half-century in 33 deliveries and reached the final over of the morning on 93 not out.

He edged Corey Collymore over the slips for a boundary and then took a single, before regaining the strike for the last ball of the over, needing two runs to become the first Indian to score a century before lunch.

Sehwag slogged Collymore down the ground, but straight to deep mid-off, and would have been run out attempting a quick single if the throw had hit the stumps.

Pakistani Majid Khan was the last man to score a century before lunch on the opening day of a Test, reaching 108 not out against New Zealand in Karachi in 1976-77.

Scoreboard

NDIA (1st Innings):

Wasim Jaffer not out 35

V. Sehwag not out 99

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-1, NB-3) 6

TOTAL (for no wkt, 25 overs) 140

TO BAT: V.V.S. Laxman, R. Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, M.S. Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, A. Kumble, Munaf Patel, V.R. Singh.

BOWLING (to-date): Collins 5-0-26-0; Taylor 6-0-26-0 (1nb); Bravo 4-0-34-0 (1w); Collymore 6-0-31-0 (1nb); Bradshaw 4-0-21-0 (1nb).

WEST INDIES: C.H. Gayle, D. Ganga, R.R. Sarwan, B.C. Lara, S. Chanderpaul, D.J.J. Bravo, D. Ramdin, I.D.R. Bradshaw, P.T. Collins, J.E. Taylor, C.D. Collymore.

UMPIRES: S.J.A. Taufel (Australia) and Asad Rauf (Pakistan).

TV UMPIRE: S.A. Bucknor (West Indies).

MATCH REFEREE: J.J. Crowe (New Zealand).—Agencies