THE media here has been agog this week with the news that Professor Stephen Hawking, widely described as "the mostfamous living scientist", has amended his long-held theory that after something falls into a black hole it was lost forever.
Hawking's field is advanced physics unintelligible to ordrinary mortals. But, had he followed West Indies cricket in recent times, he would have come to appreciate that, in this particular sphere of human endeavour at least, it is quite possible to fall into a black hole, break out of it, drop right back in and start to climb out again, all in the space of a couple of afternoons.
The cricketing hypothesis has been once more tested and proven at Lord's over the first two days of the first nPower Test.
The West Indies could not have been deeper in a hole than they were when play closed on Thursday.
Their captain chose to bowl on winning the toss and watched helpless as his bowlers offered up such inviting fare that England rattled up 51 fours in amassing 391 for two off 84.1 overs.
On a day of glorious, uninterrupted summer's sunshine, the not unrealistic expectations of another sell-out crowd of 28,000 would have been for for an England declaration sometime around tea yesterday at, say, 650 for seven and a final session of more misery for their bedraggled opponents.
It was a scenario that ignored the West Indies' utter unpredictability.
Initially sparked out of the lethargy that had consumed them by the energetic and controlled bowling of their youngest member, 20-year- old Dwayne Bravo, and three stunning catches, they claimed the last seven wickets for 41 from 68 deliveries so that England were bowled out 100 or so short of the feared total, Chris Gayle and Devon Smith, left-handers of contrasting heights and methods, then responded with a commanding opening partnership of 118 in an hour-and-a-quarter that continued the West Indies momentum.
But that black hole is never far distant for the West Indies.
Suddenly Smith and Gayle were dismissed in successive overs by the left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, Ramnaresh Sarwan was LBW to the swing bowler Matthew Hoggard to his fifth ball and, wicket of wickets, Brian Lara was deemed to have touched a catch to the wicket-keeper off Giles.
Smith, solid and composed for 62 balls of which he stroked seven fours through the covers and off his legs, misjudged length, line and turn and was bowled cutting.
Gayle and Lara too were also victims of misjudgement, not their own but rather umpire Darrell Harper.
Gayle struck eight fours with his usual power and certainty square on both sides of the wicket off 82 balls. Three were in the second over that cost England's much vaunted threat, Steve Harmison, 17 runs as Smith added another once he got strike.
A run, and two overs following Smith's demise, he stretched forward to sweep, was taken on the pad and Harper upheld the latest of England's roared appeals.
TV technology revealed the ball would have taken middle stump. It also showed Gayle struck well forward and outside off.
Sarwan, full of unusual uncertainty, lasted five balls, four more than seemed likely. His LBW decision, given by Rudi Keortzen, was clear cut.
Suddenly, 118 without loss had become 122 for three and the innings was in need of repair. For 35 minutes, Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul battled to regroup against Giles' wiles on a pitch already showing signs of wear.
Lara was dumbfounded when Harper raised his finger on a claim for a catch at the wicket. He lingered what seemed an eternity before heading towards the pavilion where he pointedly sat for the remainder of the afternoon, still padded.
His reaction was explained by the TV replay that showed his bat deliberately tucked in behind his pad and out of harm's way. The deflection was from the top of the pad and, under the law, that does not constitute a catch.
So, passing his understandably disgruntled captain on the way, Bravo strode down the famous pavilion steps and out to the middle for his first Test innings with the West Indies 139 for four replying to 569.
He did not need a degree in higher mathematics to know that it meant trouble but he was unfazed.
Giles offered him a half-volley on his legs first ball, his favourite area, and he obliged with the perfect ondrive to the midwicket boundary.
For the remaining hour and 20 minutes of the afternoon, he batted with the aplomb of a veteran in partnership with a true veteran.
With Chanderpaul (in his 80th Test), the boy who shares his birthplace with his captain, guided the West Indies back out of their hole for the second time for the day in a partnership of 59.
The left-hander, in for more than an hour-and-a-half, was 41 at close, Bravo 30 and resume this morning, still with plenty to do to keep England at bay.
But the mood overnight had to be appreciably happier than it was 24 hours earlier.
The transformation was not immediate.
It was an hour and 20 minutes into the day before the West Indies claimed their first wicket, finally dislodging Robert Key when he appeared capable of converting his first Test hundred into a triple.
Until then, their collective body language spoke of a team that didn't know where to turn to next. The brightly lit scoreboard showed 485 for two with Key 221 and captain Michael Vaughan, 68 and moving inevitably towards an unobtrusive hundred of his own.
Bravo was the one West Indian clearly not prepared to simply go through the motions.
On the opening day, he delivered his nippy medium-pace with control and common sense. While others were taken for five and six runs an over, his 14 cost 42.
Lara summoned him yesterday at 463 for two with heads hanging and shoulders dropping lower and lower. In his fourth over, Key latched on to a wide, short ball, hardly the best he had bowled, and Lara snared a stinging catch at point.
It was a timely intervention and suddenly pointed the West Indies the way out of their abyss.
They were not totallly out of it while Graham Thorpe, a proven campaigner, helped Vaughan add 42.
Another wicket for Bravo, to a careless cut stroke from Thorpe, and Andrew Flintoff's brief, arrogant, anti-climactic appearance just before lunch sent the West Indies into the break in a more optimistic frame of mind.
Flintoff arrived to the kind of reception Ian Botham used to receive. The ground roared when he hoisted the first ball he received from Omari Banks back overhead for six and groaned when he dragged the next back into his stumps, signalling the end of the morning's session.
Vaughan was 90 and in danger of running out of partners on his way to his 12th Test hundred as Pedro Collins found the line, length and angled movement that eluded him on the first day.
Geraint Jones, Giles and Vaughan, who did make it to his hundred (103 off 154 balls with 12 fours), all offered catches off the outside edge, Simon Jones was LBW, yorked on the boot.
Collins, wicketless for 20 overs, now had four for 17 off four and Bravo fittingly rounded things off by flattening Harmison's middle stump with an inswinger.
Two hours later, Bravo was back to do his bit with the bat.