Mohammad Hafeez hit a patient unbeaten half-century Wednesday as Pakistan moved toward setting up a challenging target for the West Indies in their third and final cricket Test.

Opening batsman Hafeez dug in for nearly four hours on a slow, low and bouncy wicket to remain unbeaten on 57 off 135 balls with Pakistan progressing to 130-2 in its second innings for an overall lead of 174 at stumps on day three.

Mohammad Yousuf survived a tense 12 minutes and was batting on one when bad light stopped play 15 overs before the scheduled close. Yousuf needs further 46 runs to break Viv Richards' world record of 1,710 runs in a calendar year.

``The wicket has improved a bit over the three days but it's still a difficult track for a stroke-player,'' said Hafeez. ``Suddenly you get a low delivery and it becomes really difficult for a batsman to make quick adjustment.''

Earlier, wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin guided the West Indies to 260 in its first innings with a gritty half-century and narrowed the Pakistan lead to 44.

Hafeez added 43 in a quiet opening stand with Imran Farhat (20) and put on futher 79 with Younis Khan, who was trapped lbw by Chris Gayle for 38.

The West Indies had its chance to spoil Khan's 29th birthday, but Dwayne Bravo dropped a sharp return catch off his own bowling when the Pakistan vice-captain was on 10.

``We would definitely look for a lead of around 350 runs because it's not easy to chase such a total on this low bouncy wicket,'' Hafeez said.

The three-man West Indies pace attack kept the Pakistan opening pair quiet in the post-tea session before Daren Powell found the edge of Farhat's bat in the 23rd over as the home team crawled to 61-1 at tea.

Earlier, the West Indies was in danger of conceding a big lead and slipped to 216-9, but Ramdin and Corey Collymore (8 not out) thwarted Pakistan for an hour before the tourists were bowled out in the last over before lunch.

Pakistan made 304 in its first innings and Ramdin helped the West Indies to narrow the lead on a docile wicket where batting seems to be a difficult preposition with the ball keeping low.

Ramdin struck seven boundaries in his fourth test half century that came off 95 balls. Ramdin added an invaluable 44 runs for the last wicket with Collymore before he was run out while attempting a second run.

Some sloppy Pakistan fielding also helped the West Indies, with wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal twice failing to grab opportunities behind the wickets.

Akmal dropped Ramdin on four when the ball went through his legs off leg-spinner Danish Kaneria and then missed a diving catch off a big edge from Daren Powell.

Resuming Wednesday at 191-6, the West Indies lost crucial wicket of Daren Ganga (81) as he chased Abdul Razzaq's wide delivery and got a thin edge in the fifth over of the day. Ganga held the West Indies innings together and faced 221 balls in his patient 5{-hour innings which contained nine fours.

``Unfortunately Ganga got out early and I had to take it on my own to build partnership with Collymore,'' Ramdin said.

``Certainly I rate this half-century as my best in Test matches.''

Paceman Umar Gul and Shahid Nazir struck with the second new ball and removed Powell and Jerome Taylor cheaply as the West Indies stuttered to 216-9 before Ramdin and Collymore dug in for a healthy partnership.

Gul Tuesday rattled the West Indies top order with the key wickets of Chris Gayle, Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan in space of 10 deliveries without conceding a run, and was the most successful Pakistan bowler with 4-79 while Kaneria chipped in with three wickets for 62.

Pakistan leads the three-match series 1-0 after a nine-wicket victory in the first Test at Lahore, while the second Test ended in a draw at Multan last week.

© The Canadian Press, 2007