Australia began their quest for a record seventeenth Test victory in succession knowing that they would have to make more runs in the fourth innings, 413, than they had ever done to win in this form of the game. Although they lost both openers as the India opening bowlers again got the ball to swing, Ricky Ponting played with enough conviction on an excellent wicket to suggest that the result was anything but a foregone conclusion. It never is with Australia.

India were grateful to set Australia as much as they did after losing their first five wickets inside 26 overs. After the big guns in the middle order failed and Irfan Pathan’s plucky innings of 46 as nightwatchman was ended by a sharp slip catch, India were only 278 ahead with four wickets remaining.

V. V. S. Laxman has often reserved his best batting for Australia and again he played a key part. His hundred in the second Test in Sydney was a sparkling affair, but here he embraced a more pragmatic, fighting approach, battling for nearly four hours before being last out for 79. He shared two crucial stands that edged India’s lead past 400 - 75 in 28 overs with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and 51 in 17 overs with Rudra Pratap Singh, whose chancy 30 was a Test best.

India benefited from Australia’s poor over rate, which, Tim Nielsen, their coach, admitted, compelled Ponting to employ part-time spinners in unison, in the hope of avoiding a suspension as captain. Dhoni hit Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke for straight sixes and Singh administered the same treatment to Clarke. Australia’s decision to play without a specialist spinner for the first time in 16 years backfired spectacularly.

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