Melbourne, May 26: Veteran West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul said the fear of being completely paralysed passed through his mind after he was struck on his helmet by a deadly Brett Lee delivery in the first cricket Test against Australia in Kingston.

The accident instantly floored Chanderpaul, batting on 86 during West Indies' first innings on Saturday, and the left-hander had no feeling in his limbs.

"I did not know where I was, my entire body went numb," Chanderpaul said.

"I could not move my hands and I could not move my feet. However, I told myself if I left the field we would have been in a bad state," Chanderpaul was quoted as saying in 'The Australian.'

While his wife was in tears in the grandstands, a brave Chanderpaul, after getting medical care, recovered from the severe blow to score a much-needed century (118) at the Sabina Park to keep his side in contention in the match.

Banking on his innings, the hosts made a good recovery and challenged the mighty Australians in the series opener.

Paying tributes to Chanderpaul's heroics, Lee compared the innings to that of Steve Waugh at the same venue in 1995, when the ex-Australian skipper was completely bruised and battered after getting his double hundred.

"When I went down to Shiv he was looking straight up and said he couldn't feel his arms or his feet," Lee said.

"You have to think about when the great Steve Waugh, when he got his 200, the stuff that he went through when he copped a massive blow, but he gutsed it out and batted on.

"Full credit to Shiv and I'm actually really glad that there's a lot more protection for batsmen," he said.