AN hour into the third day of the final Test yesterday, the West Indies were a thoroughly beaten, demoralised side seemingly just waiting to succumb to another sizeable defeat and the dire whitewash that had never befallen any of its predecessors on home soil.
For the remaining five and three-quarter hours, they so resolutely pulled themselves together that they ended the day, not on the verge of their fourth successive loss in the series, as appeared certain, but with spirit and pride restored and hope not entirely gone.
They are still almost certain to be beaten.
After they bowled out Australia for the second time in the match 55 minutes after tea, the first time they have managed that since the corresponding match nine Tests and four years ago, they were set a distant target of 418.
No team has ever managed as many to win in Test cricket’s long history and, with a minimum 203 overs remaining when they started their second innings, a draw is out of the question.
Thoughts of a miracle against one of the strongest and most successful teams of all time are far-fetched. But if they continue to play with the same resolve with which they turned around their plight yesterday they will make a worthy fight of it.
Once they broke an opening partnership of 242 between the left-handers Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden that had continued from its overnight 171, they went through the rest of the innings for 175 runs.
They did it in spite of the absence throughout the day of Jermaine Lawson, the wrecker of Australia’s first innings.
The big Jamaican’s exertions during his hostile seven wickets return in the first innings left him with a strained muscle in the lower back and committed him to the physio’s table, appreciably diminishing the already thin bowling.
Without him, Merv Dillon at last assumed the responsibility his 33 Tests and 119 wickets accord him as leader of the pack. For the first time in the series, he bowled with purpose and pace, sending down 16 consecutive overs broken only by tea.
He never once flagged, was repeatedly exasperated by umpire David Shepherd’s rejection of several lbw appeals and might have claimed more than the four wickets he took for 57 in the spell.
There was support from Vasbert Drakes, off-spinner Omari Banks, whose figures once more make unflattering and undeserved reading but who, in his second Test at the age of 20, never seemed fazed, and, until he left the field just after lunch feeling unwell, Chris Gayle.
Even the three substitutes - on for Lawson, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (finger injury) and, briefly, Gayle - contributed to the revival.
Marlon Samuels, no longer the casual show-boater he so often is, held two catches, the second a beauty at leg-slip.
Carlton Baugh, the little reserve wicket-keeper, made the most crucial strike of the day by running out Hayden for 177 with a direct hit from point. And Sylvester Joseph judged Brett Lee’s sliced cut at third man perfectly.
Left 23 awkward overs to the end, Gayle and his left-handed partner Devon Smith capably came through a searching examination.
They displayed precise judgment and genuine courage throughout the hour and a half, especially against Brett Lee’s searing pace that was consistently over 90 miles an hour for 6.1 overs.
Both took blows to body and glove but neither flinched at any time, gathering their runs where available, swaying away from deliveries pitched short enough or wide enough to let pass.
Umpires Shepherd and and Srinivasa Venkartaraghavan finally decided, after a Lee delivery that flashed over Smith’s head at 94 miles an hour, that the light had dimmed enough that such speed was beyond normal human eyesight to cope with and called play off with five deliveries remaining.
Following the furore over the Lawson’s action after the first innings and a report that Shepherd and Venkat paid a visit to the television studio to have a look at footage of his delivery, Lee similarly, if occasionally, touched the bounds of legality.
His action has been the subject of scrutiny for some time and, once, official investigation. Shepherd and Venkat may well again appear in the TV production room this morning to detect how much elbow grease he is using.
It was an encouraging end to the day for the West Indies after the agony of the opening hour.
As Banks and Drakes operated all through it, Brian Lara set strange fields - fielders on the cover and square-leg boundaries for Banks, no fine-leg for Drakes round the wicket - and pointedly slowed the over-rate.
It had no effect on the scoring as the pair scored 63 from 14 overs, both passing their hundreds and raising their fifth stand of over 200 in their 36th innings together. It sent them ahead of the four by Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes as the most by any pair in Test history.
Hayden got to his landmark first, his 14th in Tests. Langer’s 15th followed 20 minutes later but did not get much further.
Gayle replaced Drakes and spun his off-break second ball to find a deflection low to first slip where Brian Lara held a catch identical to the one he missed the previous day off Banks when Hayden was 47.
Langer had batted without a chance for 244 balls, hitting a six and 17 fours.
By lunch, Banks had been deservedly rewarded with the wickets of Adam Gilchrist and Martin Love, both taken close to the wicket by Samuels, and the spring had returned to the West Indies’ step.
The left-handed Gilchrist, promoted to No.3 to maintain the scoring rate of over four an over, edged a bouncing off-break onto Ridley Jacobs’ shoulder from where it rebounded to gully.
The right-handed Love fell for the second time in the match to Banks the ball before lunch, Samuels claiming a sharp offering inches from the ground three yards from the bat.
With Dillon exclusively occupying the pavilion end on resumption and reverting to his former self, the West Indies continued to work their way through the innings.
Darren Lehman diverted Dillon back into his stumps, attempting a late cut from the previous ball to one too close to his body.
Hayden, backing up too far on Steve Waugh’s push into the off-side, was a long way out when Baugh swept in and fired his return to remove one bail at the bowler’s end.
It was key dimissal for Hayden had three sixes, 22 fours and 260 balls in the book and had plainly set his sights on his second Test double.
The dangerous Andy Bichel was despatched without scoring, Smith snaring a sharp, two-handed catch at second slip as he drove at Dillon.
When Lee threatened to do what Bichel had already done three times in the series, Joseph ran in from third man to clutch his sliced cut.
Jason Gillespie and Stuart MacGill followed cheaply after tea to low slip catches by Lara to the second new ball and only a troublesome last wicket stand of 29 between Waugh and McGrath that carried the total past 400 took the gloss off the West Indies effort.
In the end, McGrath was caught at short-leg by Daren Ganga who had missed him 13 runs earlier off the same bowler, leaving the West Indies with their distant target.