IT has been an especially heartless start to the New Year for Test cricket's beleaguered bowlers.
While Sachin Tendulkar and V.V.S.Laxman battered Australia for 650 for five in the third Test half a world away in Sydney, South Africa amassed 532 against the hapless West Indies for whom Chris Gayle responded with strokes of withering power in raising one of the game's fastest hundreds on the second day of the third Test.
Decelerating once arriving at his landmark from 79 balls, Gayle was 112 with the West Indies 178 for one at the end of a day that yielded an unbeaten 122 for South African wicket-keeper Mark Boucher and two sixes and 52 fours in the 400 runs taken off the 90 overs.
No bowler was spared punishment on a cloudless, sunlit day and on a pitch as heavily weighted for batting as any they could have experienced.
None could find the relevant formula for containment. All erred in length that was repeatedly too short for the circumstances as first Boucher and Jacques Kallis, then Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan liberally helped themselves to the runs on offer.
Distinctly hindered by a heavily-strapped right thigh, the legacy of a torn hamstring that rendered him all but useless in the first Test and kept him out of the second, Gayle peppered the boundaries with strokes in all directions.
Most were off the back - and healthy - foot as he sped to his hundred, his third in his 36th Test, from 79 balls.
The tall, 24-year-old Jamaican announced his mood and his intentions with his second scoring shot.
It was an incredible short-armed pull off his hip from Makhaya Ntini that landed 90 metres away among the amazed spectators in the seats behind square-leg.
He also had 19 fours on the way so that he only needed to tax his injured leg for 18 of his runs.
Shaun Pollock, an outstanding bowler with 318 Test wickets to his credit, was pummelled for five fours in his opening five overs that cost 29.
Ntini was taken for 35 runs in his first spell of seven overs. When Andre Nel took over from Pollock, he was pulled twice and cut once for fours off successive balls in his first over, then twice hoisted over mid-off in his next for two more.
Kallis replaced Nel to induce Gayle's first, and only, scratchy stroke, an inside-edge to fine leg. It reached the ropes all the same as did two more authentic strokes in the over, through the covers and over slips.
Gayle entered the 90s from 62 balls but was then delayed by a maiden from Kallis. His hundred followed 17 balls later, at 125 off the fifth ball of the 23rd over.
It was an unforgettable display that a crowd of 18,000 rose to acclaim. Among them was a small group of West Indians, joyously waving Jamaican, Guyanese and Trinidad and Tobago flags. It was a welcome change.
No one has reached a Test hundred faster than the 56 balls it took Sir Viv Richards, now chairman of selectors and watching Gayle's assault from the pavilion, against England in Antigua in 1984.
But, with his first 50 off 37 balls, Gayle was on course to better Jack Gregory's 64 balls for Australia against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1926 in second place before his tempo slowed.
Daren Ganga's contribution to an opening stand of 126 was 17.
When his drive at Nel deflected the ball into the leg-stump from the inside-edge, Sarwan emerged to continue the attack that had been started by Boucher in the first two sessions.
He stroked eight fours in 39 from 43 balls while Gayle took a breather in a stand worth 52.
He should have been caught by Boucher off left-arm wrist spinner Paul Adams' stock ball, the googly, at 31 but resumes this morning, as every subsequent batsmen will, eager to capitalise on the conditions.
Earlier, Boucher's 21 fours from 173 balls had once more exposed the weakness of the West Indies bowling that has now conceded three totals of over 500 and one over 600 in five Tests on their twin tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Three wickets from the last four overs of the opening day meant South Africa resumed at 308 for six, their most uncertain position in the series to date.
When Shaun Pollock nibbled at Fidel Edwards outside off-stump and edged a catch to Ridley Jacobs in the day's second over, they were 315 for seven and the West Indies were one wicket away from Ntini and Nel, their only two negligible batsmen.
The defining moment soon followed, five overs into the second new ball.
Kallis, resuming his innings interrupted at 23 on the first afternoon following a blow to the forearm inflicted by Edwards, and Boucher had added 40 in eight overs when Edwards went through Boucher with a fast, full length delivery that hit off-stump.
The celebrations were frustrated by the preceding no-ball call from umpire Daryl Harper. Boucher was 15 at the time.
He made no error after that, sharing a partnership of 146 with Kallis that drained the West Indies energy and enthusiasm.
After three overs of Dave Mohammed left-arm spin, Brian Lara used Edwards and Adam Sanford with the new ball, changed to Vasbert Drakes and gave Wavell Hinds his first bowl of the match.
As the runs kept flowing, Mohammed, who been used for 21 overs on the first day, had to wait for another meaningful spell until an hour after lunch by which time Kallis and Boucher were flourishing. It was an inexplicable tactic.
Kallis set the early pace but then was becalmed as Boucher took over. He offered a hard, but feasible catch off Drakes that Carlton Baugh, substituting for Dwayne Smith at point, could only parry with both hands to his left.
He was 59 at the time and would not present another opportunity to dislodge him, galloping to his hundred from 151 balls with his 17th four, one of the 22 taken off Edwards for the innings. His second 50 required only 61 balls.
He was 80 when Kallis was lbw on the back foot for 73 to Sanford's inswinger but Ntini saw him to his hundred in a partnership of 52.
It further harassed the West Indies before Mohammed had Ntini caught behind, some compensation for a huge six off him by the fast bowler, and Sanford sent back Nel.