KOLKATA: India failed to finish the job after pushing Pakistan to the wall as stand-in skipper Younis Khan struck a chanceless century under pressure to salvage a draw on the final day of the second cricket Test here on Tuesday.

Set a winning target of 345, Pakistan were struggling at 78/4 in the post lunch session, before the seasoned pair of Younis (107 not out) and Mohammed Yousuf (44 not out) stitched together a match-saving 136-run partnership to deny India a Eden Gardens victory. Replying to India's second innings essay of 184/4 declared, Pakistan had reached 214/4 in 77 overs when the match was called off with four mandatory overs still remaining.

Younis, who had scored a hundred on this ground in Pakistan's previous appearance in 2004-05, gave yet another fine exhibition of batsmanship to complete his 15th hundred in 57 Tests in an innings spanning 214 minutes. He faced 182 balls and struck 14 boundaries. Yousuf, however, was lucky to survive on 32 when short leg fielders Dinesh Kaarthick and Wasim Jaffer failed to react to a bad-pad edge of a quicker delivery.

With Indian skipper Anil Kumble declaring 38 minutes into the day's play, Pakistan were left with a minimum of 81 overs to make a match of it. However, the tourists lost Yaseer Hamid (14) as early as the seventh over with 23 on the board, as the batsman went for an uppish drive off Zaheer Khan who stretched to his right to accept the catch.

The lunch was taken with Pakistan on 37/1. The script seemed to be going India's way during the second session, as they picked up three wickets to be in a commanding position on the slowly turning track. The visitors got a big jolt when first innings centurion Kamran Akmal (14) fell in the second ball after resumption. The wicket-keeper batsman tried to work away a leg-break from veteran leggie Kumble, missed the line and found his citadel shattered.

Younis, who opened with a boundary of Kumble and brought up Pakistan's 50 with a couple, defended dourly to save his side at a ground known for giving vicious turn to the spinners in the last session of the final day. Kumble then plotted the dismissal of Salman Butt (8) with a delivery that turned in from outside the off stump to find the batsman plumb in front, leaving Pakistan at a precarious 65 for 3.

The veteran Indian spinner was unlucky in the next ball, as Pakistan's first innings hero and new batsman Misbah-ul Haq was dropped by Dinesh Kaarthick at short leg. The lapse, however, did not prove costly, with pacer Munaf Patel deceiving Misbah with an off cutter that bowled him through the gap between bat and pad.

Pakistan were looking down the barrel at 78 for four before Younis and Yousuf put their heads down to do the rescue act. Younis and the in-form Yousuf then soldiered on, as the 100 of the innings came off 46.5 overs in 112 minutes. India went wicketless in the last session, that saw the 100 of the partnership posted in 101 minutes of 181 balls.

The host bowlers seemed resigned to a drawn encounter as Pakistan's 200 came in the 74th over, when Yousuf cut Patel to the backward point ropes. Younis completed his well-deserved ton in style, as he reverse swept a lacklustre Harbhajan Singh past backward point into the boundary, and gleefully took off his helmet and raised his bat. The right hander reached the milestone in 203 minutes, facing 174 balls, hitting 13 boundaries.

In the morning, the home side went for quick runs in their bid to effect an early declaration. The day's opening over was eventful, as overnight not out batsman Sourav Ganguly picked up five runs of Shoaib Akhtar's very first ball, courtesy a single and a boundary of an overthrow.

The left hander took a single of the next delivery to reach 30 and complete 6000 runs in 98 Tests by playing the Rawalpindi Express to backward point, but injured his left elbow in the third ball as he dived to save himself from a run out. The physio had to be called in to attend to Ganguly.