DARREN Bravo's century has left Middlesex with a mountain to climb in today's tour game against the West Indies.
Middlesex have been set a challenging target of 330 for victory at the halfway stage of the 50 overs clash at Lord's.
Chris Gayle, having joined up with the West Indies squad ahead of the one-day series against England after missing the tests through IPL commitments, signalled his intentions with two early big sixes off Tim Murtagh.
The Middlesex quickie then thought he had his man caught behind the stumps, but his appeals were ignored, and it was left to Anthony Ireland to dismiss Gayle for 34, Josh Davey taking the catch near the boundary.
Lendl Simmons followed soon after, bowled by Paul Stirling and stumped by Adam Rossington for 23, while Dawid Malan just failed with a spectacular catch off Dwayne Smith as the tourists passed the 100 mark.
It was Smith who took the West Indies past 200 too with a big six, but just as he was eyeing a ton, he was caught by Stirling off a Murtagh delivery for 96.
Stirling soon took another catch, this time off Davey, with Kieron Pollard returning to the pavilion for just 18, but as the West Indies' overs came to an end, it became the Bravo show.
Dwayne Bravo hit two big sixes off Ireland as Darren Bravo remained stranded off-strike on 96, but a steady single soon brought up Darren's century.
And the final few balls saw Darren smash two sixes and Dwayne on with a final flurry which took the tourists to 329-4.
