As the players emerged after tea at 7pm, with the floodlights taking full effect, the 'feel like' temperature at the Gabba according to various weather apps remained 35 degrees. It is, of course, not unusual for cricketers to face oppressively hot conditions, but the third day in Brisbane was especially demanding. It would have cranked the old Channel Nine 'Player Comfort Meter' off the scale.
For the Australians, in particular, it was going to be a day of digging deep as they looked to work their way through West Indies' second innings. Matt Renshaw was a regular presence on the field as the quicks rotated back to the dressing room. Spells for the fast bowlers were kept short. Drinks were run at every opportunity, so much so that at one stage the umpires sent one of West Indies' reserves back before they could make it to the batters.
Plan A for Australia would have been to go through West Indies while the new ball was still hard, but the visitors didn't allow that to happen. Instead, Australia had to eke out their rewards. Kraigg Brathwaite's poor series with the bat concluded with a loose drive to cover, Kirk McKenzie missed a sweep against Nathan Lyon after compiling an excellent 41, and Alick Athanaze's best innings of the tour was halted with an edge to slip.
Lyon later explained the Athanaze scalp owed much to some tactical input from Steven Smith, who suggested a wider line to the left hander. The wicket made Lyon-Smith the second most prolific bowler-fielder combination of all time. Overall, Lyon's role in sending down 22 overs was crucial in that he was both incisive and economical, going at less than two an over, to allow the quicks to stay as fresh as possible.
It was a day where the bowlers needed as much support as they could muster in the field. In the penultimate over of the first session, Smith had spilled a tough chance offered by Athanaze, diving across in front of first slip when the ball would probably have reached Usman Khawaja. It denied Cameron Green his second wicket of the session after a terrific over from around the wicket. Every time a camera focused on the faces of Australia's quicks you could see the toll the conditions were taking. It was not a day to give a batter a second chance.
Between dinner and tea, Australia's fielding was at the forefront of their success in keeping West Indies' lead under control. Another stand had started to form between Kavem Hodge and Justin Greaves when Hodge flicked Lyon off his pads towards Travis Head at short leg. Hodge overbalanced out of his crease, Head gathered the ball and, in one motion, flicked it back towards the stumps. Replays showed Hodge's bat was over the crease but in the air, as he hurriedly attempted to place it down rather than slide it in. It was a moment of inspiration.
The bad news for Head is that it makes it even unlikelier he will be able to lose the bat-pad role, having recently taken it from Marnus Labuschagne amid a reshuffle of Australia's close catchers following the retirement of David Warner
"Spewing about that, you just don't want to start well, do you?" Head joked after taking his screamer to remove Brathwaite in Adelaide. "Jeez, I don't want to pigeonhole myself in there. But happy to do it if Marnus isn't happy to do it."
Lyon confirmed Head was going nowhere. "Travis is going to be there for the rest of my career," he said with a laugh. "Marnus has somehow weaved his way out of bat-pad and Travis has taken it on. I know he wants that spot and wants to do a really good job. As a spin bowler, bowling to someone who wants to be at bat-pad it's pretty handy. [It was] a big turning point."
Three overs later it was Green's turn. Joshua Da Silva, who had been a thorn in Australia's side in the first innings, drove at Mitchell Starc. The chance flew above Green's head, he leapt and got a hand to the ball, but the initial chance didn't stick. However, he was able to keep his composure and hold the rebound as it fell behind him. For a split second, you could see an expletive of anguish coming from Starc before, perhaps, one of relief.
"It's going over most fieldsmen's head, that's for sure," Ricky Ponting said on Channel 7. "And the big man puts both hands up. Knocks it up to himself and then gets it in one hand on the way down… another good catch from one of the best gully fieldsmen Australia has seen."
Lyon later added: "He's taken some catches [that] I believe no one else would get a hand on."
In the final session, Smith showed the earlier drop had been an aberration as he leapt above his head to hold Alzarri Joseph's flashing outside edge. "Both feet off the ground, great extension," Ponting said. "Right in the middle of those very, very safe catching hands. I was just talking about it not being easy to see here at the Gabba. Very good catch, timed his jump perfectly."
West Indies' innings came to an unfortunate end when Starc's yorker became a literal toe-crusher as it crashed into Shamar Joseph's boot. It was given lbw but Starc had overstepped, although by the time that was confirmed, Shamar was already on the ground in pain.
But as a depleted West Indies' attack made inroads into the top order once again, a target of 216 seemed just a little further away. Australia had passed their test of endurance on the field but, if the Brisbane weather allows, they could still face a test of nerve.