Sarwan hit his 11th Test hundred for the West Indies in Antigua

A superb rearguard century from skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan helped the West Indies to draw the second Test match against Australia in Antigua.

Sarwan, aided by Shivnarine Chanderpaul who made an unbeaten 77, hit 128 to thwart the tourists' hopes of going two up in the three-match series.

Brett Lee removed opener Devon Smith (0) and Runako Morton (14), while Stuart Clark dismissed Xavier Marshall.

But the West Indies dug in to keep the series alive going to Bridgetown.

Declaring on their overnight score of 244-6 and leaving the West Indies a nominal target of 372 to win, the Australians wrested the early initiative at lunch.

Lee, who took five wickets in the first innings, continued to bowl with pace and aggression, taking two wickets to leave the home side struggling at 95-3.

He gave opener Smith a thorough working over with a string of sharp, short-pitched deliveries, before the batsman meekly fended a rising ball to Mike Hussey at gully for a duck.

We needed to survive but at the same time we needed to be positive Ramnaresh Sarwan

Sarwan, ably assisted by Morton, launched into rearguard action as Australia's fast bowlers searched for their third breakthrough.

Lee - the West Indies' first innings tormentor - eventually found his way through Morton's defences with the score on 84, trapping the hard-hitting 29-year-old leg before for 14.

However, with new batsman and first innings centurion Chanderpaul at the crease with Sarwan, the two Guyanese thwarted all Australia threw at them - but not without the odd stroke of luck on the way.

Leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, playing his final Test, looked certain to have Sarwan stumped with the last ball of the 51st over, but third umpire Norman Marshall gave the 27-year-old the benefit of the doubt, even though replays suggested the batsman's foot was on the line, rather than behind.

And Sarwan compounded Australia's frustrations when he swept a full toss off MacGill for four to bring up his 11th Test hundred two balls before tea.

606: DEBATE Nice and steady with Shiv and Sarwan at the crease SpeakingCivilised

Dwayne Bravo came and then went in quick succession, fending a leading edge from a short-pitched Lee delivery to Brad Hodge to give Australia renewed hope of forcing victory.

But with Danesh Ramdin providing able support to reach 21 not out, Chanderpaul was able to see out the remaining overs and take his match tally to 184 runs without dismissal.

Following the match Sarwan praised Chanderpaul's efforts which have seen the left hander average over 100 in the past year of Test cricket: "Over the past few years he's shown his consistency and he's getting better with age. Hopefully we can learn from him.

"Our focus was to take every session as it is, we needed to survive but at the same time we needed to be positive."

"Ramnaresh and Shiv played very well and that partnership in the middle session that we couldn't break was the difference between us winning and it being a draw," agreed Australian captain Ricky Ponting.

Ponting also singled out Brett Lee's 8-110 match figures on the North Sound pitch: "In his spell yesterday morning he ran in and bowled nice and fast.

"We figured pretty early in this game there was no point pitching the ball up and trying to swing it, you really had to bash it into the wicket and try to get a little bit out of it that way.

"I'm sure when we get down to Barbados there'll be a little bit more bounce and bit more assistance for the bowlers."

The final Test starts on 12 June with Australia leading 1-0.