FOR two and a half stimulating hours yesterday afternoon, Brian Lara and his new favourite accomplice Daren Ganga, turned the boys against men mismatch that the second Cable & Wireless Test was from the start into a more even contest.
In a rousing third wicket partnership of 158, at better than run a ball rate and studded with four sixes and 20 fours, they were kicking sand back into the Australian strongman's face.
A faltering 25 for two at tea, in response to the intimidating 576 for four declared staring down from the electronic scoreboard, had been transformed into 183 without another wicket down and only two overs and one ball remained to carry the pair into the third morning.
Lara was 91 and the 10,000 or so around the Oval, and thousands more listening around the country, were already making plans to return to see their favourite son complete his first, elusive hundred in his 10th Test on the famous ground that has been his cricketing home since he was a boy in short pants.
Suddenly, the sight of fallen bails and leaping Australians brought a knowing hush to proceedings that had become increasingly uproarious with every sweet stroke.
Lara had missed his sweep shot against left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg's chinaman and joyful Australians were certain he was bowled round his legs.
Lara waited for confirmation from the television replay, perhaps himself knowing there would be no reprieve from fourth umpire Billy Doctrove.
When the red light sealed his fate, the West Indies captain trudged disconsolately back to the club pavilion that had offered him refuge so many times in the past.
The general mournful reaction was to be expected. Lara had now spent 19 innings trying to satisfy himself and his countrymen with the three figures he has reached 19 times on other fields, the latest in Georgetown in the first Test last week.
The closest he had come was 95 against Pakistan in 1993 when he was bowled by the little known left-arm spinner Asif Mujtaba. Now time is running out for he turns 34 on May 2.
The steadfast, right-handed Ganga, also a Trinidadian but one whose credentials had been repeatedly questioned prior to his partnership of 185 with Lara in the first Test when both scored hundreds, remained unbeaten 69 at close.
He has never batted better, not even at Bourda. There was not a single error of judgement in the three hours in which he coped with 114 balls and his approach was positive throughout.
Among his 10 fours were two exquisite off-drives off the pace of Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie and a long, perfect straight six off Hogg. As he and Lara put the bowling to the sword, the Trini Posse Stand appropriately reverberated to the sounds of David Rudder's calypso hit, "Trini to the bone".
Ganga resumes today with vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan and the youngest and least experienced West Indies team on record 186 for three, still 390 behind. It is a daunting prospect over the next three days that remain to save the match and prevent Australia going two up in the series of four.
He and Lara joined forces after tea following the loss of the left-handed openers Devon Smith and Wavell Hinds, both caught off fine outside edges, in the seven overs Lee and Gillespie bowled following Australia's two o'clock declaration the moment Adam Gilchrist became the third century-maker of the innings.
Ganga made the early running while Lara bided his time.
At the first drinks break, an hour into the session, the stand was worth 47 and Ganga had a 39-19 lead. By then, Lara's inside-edge off Andy Bichel that streaked past the leg-stump to the fine-leg boundary indicated the captain wasn't yet settled.
The introduction of Stuart MacGill's leg-spin saw to that. Lara soon despatched a full toss to the long-on boundary and then chipped down to hoist him for sixes over long-on and into the Constantine Stand at long-off from an over that yielded 17.
He survived a close, but correct decision from erratic umpire Asoka deSilva off Bichel at 48 but it was the only alarm as he made up the 20 runs leeway on Ganga off nine balls.
The two passed 50 in the same over and, when Hogg relieved Bichel, Lara greeted him with a four over long-off and a six onto the cycle track at long-on in his first over.
But Hogg is clearly a competitive character who enjoys such a challenge and he was soon bothering Lara with his variations. The sweep was the shot that led to Lara's dismissal for 110 at Bourda and, after repeatedly using it again, he was his downfall again.
The foundation for Australia's mammoth total was laid on the first day by the record third wicket partnership of 325 between Ricky Ponting and Darren Lehmann that raised a total of 391 for three by close off the woefully inadequate bowling .
Ponting, 146 at the start, and the left-handed Adam Gilchrist consolidated by adding a further 171, the former advancing past his first double hundred in Tests, the latter completing his eighth three-figure Test innings at which point Steve Waugh made his declaration an hour and a quarter after lunch.
Ponting continued to relentlessly gather untroubled runs before he was finally out for 206 forty minutes into the second session to a smart leg-side stumping off Marlon Samuels' off-break.
The alert 20-year-old debutant wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh made a neat take and, as Ponting overbalanced, whipped off the bails.
Although correct, if close, DeSilva, at square-leg, made a hair-line decision without reference to the television replay and Ponting left the ground, clearly surprised and unconvinced.
Ponting surpassed his previous highest score of 197 against Pakistan, moving his Test average above 50 with his 16th three figure innings in Tests and his second in successive matches, following his 117 in the first Test. His main scoring shots were a six and 24 fours in all directions.
The left-handed Gilchrist was unusually watchful over the first hour against more controlled West Indian bowling than on the first day but once he settled the runs flowed at close to five an over.
He just escaped a couple of hooks, one off Pedro Collins sailing over Ganga's head 10 yards in from the deep sqauare-leg boundary which would have made a straightforward catch had he been right back, as he should have been.
After that, Gilchrist made a mockery of attempts to trap him on the hook, a stroke that brought him most of his 11 fours. He also hit two sixes.
The stroke that raised his hundred, a fierce, low cut, just carried to the sprawling David Bernard at backward point but he couldn't make the catch as Gilchrist completed two.