THE second day of the first Cable & Wireless Test was as hard as the West Indies could have expected but, entirely because of Vasbert Drakes, not quite as bad as seemed likely half-way through.
They spent the first three and a quarter hours toiling in vain, as they did on the previous afternoon, with little sign that they would ever separate the resuming Australian pair of Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting, both of whom advanced to inevitable hundreds.
The likeliest option remained running one out, the method which had gained them their only wicket, but when that chance arrived with Ponting 66, Devon Smith's underarm toss from gully from a range of five yards missed its mark.
The two extended their partnership to 248, the highest for the second wicket in the 57 Tests between the teams in the Caribbean, until Drakes, the 33-year-old veteran finally free to be chosen for his first home Test after seven years in the service of teams in South Africa and England, dismissed them both.
He accounted for Darren Lehmann as well in a spell of eight overs that instigated the fall of five wickets for 77 runs, quite an achievement given the lifeless Bourda pitch and the one-dimensional composition of the attack.
But Drakes' example of the value of consistent line and length, whatever the conditions, was seemingly lost on his younger colleagues.
The ground gained was quickly surrendered by the dross served up by Merv Dillon, the only bowler in the team with over 100 Test wickets, Pedro Collins and the lively but erratic Jermaine Lawson.
They could hardly place two balls in the same spot, allowing Andy Bichel to overcome an uncertain start to thump eight boundaries in 39 off 46 balls and share a run-a-ball stand of 85 with the feared left-hander Adam Gilchrist that quickly quelled the West Indian revival.
Australia, 362 for six when umpire Asoka deSilva was finally persuaded to give a palpable lbw decision, for Collins against Brad Hogg, reached 489 before they were all out five overs before the end of an extended day.
Even then, it necessitated the recall of Drakes, though clearly tiring from his earlier exertions on another hot afternoon, to dismiss Bichel and finish off the innings with his fifth wicket.
Australia's lead when Brett Lee's miscued hook fell into Dillon's grasp at mid-on was 252.
With three days remaining, it should be enough to convert into victory over opponents weighed down by the self-inflicted baggage of off-field controversy and confusion and the on-field injuries that kept Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ridley Jacobs off the field and pressed Wavell Hinds into unpracticed service as keeper.
Still, the pitch remains placid, the outfield as fast as Barber-Green surface and they should at least have a fight.
The deficit was reduced by 16 as the left-handed debutant Devon Smith cooly dispatched three boundaries in one over from Stuart MacGill's leg-spin when Steve Waugh used his two spinners before the light faded quickly to end play.
The first half of the day was dominated by Langer and Ponting who are not the types of miss out on a gold-embossed invitation to add to their Test hundreds.
Ponting extended his overnight 46 to 117, his 16th hundred in his 65th Test and his sixth in his last 11 Tests. The left-handed opener Langer went from 55 to 146, his 14th in his 60th Test.
Apart from Smith's missed run out, there was only occasional encouragement for the West Indies.
Langer edged Lawson's fifth ball of the day short and wide of slip and nibbled a couple of times outside off-stump at Drakes. He was 112 when an edge off Collins went to Hinds, inches from the turf. Jacobs might have snared the catch, his unpracticed substitute had little chance.
Langer preceeded to his three figures half-hour before Ponting reached his landmark with an on-drive four off Marlon Samuels' off-spin in the over to lunch.
So comfortable was batting that it came as a surprise when Ponting suddenly drove hard at the first ball of a new spell from Drakes that held its line to find the edge on the way to first slip.
In for 195 balls, Ponting stroked 18 fours, most in front of the wicket, his stand with Langer surpassing the previous Australian standard for the wicket in the Caribbean of 180 between Graeme Wood and Peter Toohey at Sabina Park in 1978.
Drakes next accounted for Darren Lehmann to substitute David Bernard's breathtaking, low, two-handed catch at point from a fierce cut and then ended Langer's long vigil.
Langer was in for six and a quarter hours (271 balls, two sixes, 18 fours) when he nibbled once more outside off-stump in the second over with the second new ball and found a thin edge through to Hinds.
When captain Steve Waugh, moving across his stumps, was lbw to Dillon for 25 and the left-handed Hogg fell to deSilva's first lbw decision of the innings to Collins, the West Indies were making encouraging headway.
But they could not maintain the momentum.
Gilchrist, the left-handed wicket-keeper who has established himself as the most dangerous lower order player in the game, hit a typically beligerent 77 off 81 balls with a couple of sixes, one swung over mid-wicket off Collins, one back overnight off Drakes, and nine fours.
Bichel outscored him with firmly struck drives and some easy runs through the leg-side when Brian Lara placed eight fielders on the off and Collins promptly drifted onto middle and leg stumps.
It took the recall of Drakes to end the merriment, Hinds grasping a low catch with his right glove at full stretch that would have pleased even Jacobs.
By now, Gilchrist was in sight of a hundred but Lawson drew a premature drive that produced a return catch and claimed his second wicket by bowling the swinging Jason Gillespie.
Drakes' fifth wicket was fitting reward for a day's honest work and he led the team back into the pavilion. It is a pity his professionalism hasn't permeated the rest of the bowling staff.