Hayden, playing in a zone all his own, brought up his second century for this World Cup with a pushed single off Samuels in the 38th over. This one may have taken 44 more deliveries than his world-record setting one, but its value was incalculable: he was scoring, at the time, close to half his team's total, and doing it at a healthy 90-plus run rate despite being kept runless for the first 18 deliveries of his innings.

The eight fours and the one-handed six were tribute to his striking ability, but what stood out on the day was his tireless sprinting between wickets.

Into the slog phase, Hayden gave up on any attempts at subtlety, took a deep breath, and swelled in size especially around the shoulders -- or so it must have seemed to Taylor, who in the 45th over bore the brunt.

To the second ball of Taylor's last over, Hayden did something complicated with his legs, created some room and slammed a full length ball outside off stump over the ropes at long on.

The next ball saw the batsman make room and blast away, this time one handed, through extra cover. The ball immediately following saw Hayden back into his crease to get some space to work with, and hit straight, hit hard, hit huge - and very straight for another six. He was warming up. In the next over, he swung Samuels from off to wide mid on; delicately finagled one to the third man fence; got beaten by a slower ball outside off but gritted his teeth, bulged those biceps some more, and swung it high over wide midwicket for another six.

At the end of 40 overs, the question was whether Australia would reach 300. By the 46th, and thanks entirely to Hayden, the question was, could the West Indies restrict Australia to 325-330, tops?

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