THE numbers are as straightforward as they are intimidating. But for one salient factor, they would equate to a mission impossible.
A West Indies eleven with six players under the age of 25, two on debut and another in his second Test, were yesterday challenged by the strongest team of its generation to score more to win the second Test than any team has ever managed or, alternatively, to survive a minimum of 127 overs to save it.
In 1976, India got the 404 required to beat the West Indies on the same Queen's Park Oval, losing only four wickets in the process. The West Indies target now is 407 and, by the end of the day, they had already lost three wickets in erasing 107 of what they were set, when Australian captain Steve Waugh declared his second innings an hour and 25 minutes into the second session at 238 for three.
They therefore set out this morning requiring to score 300 more to reach the distant goal of victory or to bat for 90 overs, or six hours, to deny Australia the second successive victory in the series of four Tests that would assure the retention of the Frank Worrell Trophy.
On a dry pitch on which the wear and tear of 360 overs has created a couple of strategically positioned potholes as deep as any on James Street, Albouystown, it is an enormous task.
Only the presence of Brian Lara, who resumes with 52, makes it conceivable.
The West Indies captain has faced such odds before and overcome them, most famously against Australia in their last series in the Caribbean four years ago. Already this series he has scores of 110 and 91 in his two previous innings and the personal incentive of scoring his first hundred on his home ground remains strong.
The talk among the few thousand faithfuls who treked out of the Queen's Park Oval yesterday afternoon - and, doubtless, among the millions of others across the Caribbean and beyond - recalled the most famous Lara miracle of all and saw no reason why it could not be repeated.
At Kensington Oval in 1999, the West Indies began the last day 85 for three needing 224 for an unlikely victory. Lara was 2 and, following a match-winning 213 in the previous Test at Sabina, the general expectation was that he would do it.
And he did, with an unbeaten 153 that brought heart-stopping victory by one wicket. It was one of the most extraordinary and memorable innings Test cricket has known - and it will require a repetition today if the West Indies are to even come close.
Already Lara has been reprieved, a favourable omen perhaps.
He had just started his innings following the quick loss of the left-handed opener Devon Smith for his second 0 in his second Test and Daren Ganga, century-maker in his two previous innings, in the first four overs of a magnificent new ball spell by Jason Gillespie when he fiercely pulled Brett Lee to the boundary and attempted to repeat two balls later.
He was late on the shot and the ball lobbed back down the wicket as the rampaging bowler followed through. He thrust out his right hand, held the ball for a split second and then let it spill to the turf.
Lara was then 6 and the total 23 for two. As Lara batted through to the end, with only umpire Rudi Koertzen's close lbw decision to the left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg when he was 48 to alarm him, only today will tell how significant was the miss.
If nothing else, it is bound to add a few thousand more to today's attendance, compensating for the resulting loss when he was out for 91 in the closing overs of the first innings.
Like Lara then, Wavell Hinds was a late casualty.
The tall Jamaican left-hander kept his captain steadfast company for two hours, scoring 35 in a partnership of 95 that required great concentration.
He was seven balls away from seeing out of the day when he blocked Stuart MacGill's sharp leg-break out of the rough only to see the ball trickle back onto the stumps and elude his desperate attempt to kick it away before the bails fell.
It was an untimely setback joyfully greeted by the increasingly concerned Australians.
Until Lara and Hinds held them up, they had done as they pleased on the day.
At 31 for one, they were already 199 ahead when play began and Matthew Hayden took the opportunity of the threadbare West Indian bowling to add his name to Ricky Ponting, Darren Lehmann and Adam Gilchrist as Australian century-makers in the match.
His untroubled, unbeaten even 100 off 180 balls with 10 fours was his thirteenth three-figure innings in Tests and, after three low scores, he spent four hours 35 minutes carefully playing himself back into form.
He shared partnerships of 106 with Ponting, whose 45 was his first dismissal in the series under 117, and 120 with fellow left-hander Lehmann, whose carefree 66 off 76 balls included two long leg-side sixes off Marlon Samuels' off-spin and eight fours.
Driving at Merv Dillon, Ponting was the only wicket in the first session, out to a low catch well taken by wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh, the 20-year-old debutant who had a rough time in his first match on the most difficult pitch in the Caribbean for keepers.
As Ponting turned to walk off, he was brushed by the celebrating bowler's shoulder, prompting a brief, animated, bat-waving exit.
While Hayden diligently went about his task, Lehmann enjoyed the leeway Australia's position have him. He escaped at 20 when his cut off Vasbert Drakes straight to point was floored by Hinds who would have run him out an over earlier with a direct hit.
Eventually, Merv Dillon managed to find one of the requite line and length to hit middle stump as Lehmann swung wildly.
Waugh declared immediately and did not have to wait long for success.
Gillespie had despatched Smith in the first innings with a thin edge to the keeper off one, delivered from round the wicket, that left him. Now he twice thudded into his pads in his first over and umpire Asoka deSilva gave a marginal affirmative to the second.
Gillespie also made Ganga's life miserable, passing inside and outside his bat and striking him painfully on the right thumb, a blow that needed attention from the spray can.
Soon Ganga drove hard at an outswinger and Hayden swallowed the resulting edge low down at first slip. It was a similar dismissal to Ganga's in the first innings, only the bowler was different.
Had Lee latched on to Lara's offering 11 runs later, the Australians might even have finished things off by close. Instead, they would have spent an anxious night, still thinking of Lara.