“YOU’LL be remembered by what you do in Test cricket,” said Sourav Ganguly a few hours after Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, had spoken in Mohali about the primacy of the five-day game. This will be his final series, but the man who thwarted Steve Waugh’s Invincibles back in 2001 is determined not to go quietly. As Greg Chappell, his former coach, watched from the Australia dressing room, Ganguly scored the first Indian century of the series to help them seize control of the game on the second day. With Mahendra Singh Dhoni, standing in as captain for the injured Anil Kumble, contributing a sparkling 92, India got as far as 469.

Then, with the new-ball pairing of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma in irrepressible form and Amit Mishra picking up two on debut, Australia were in trouble by stumps. Michael Hussey, unconquered on 37, had the onerous task of leading them out of the wilderness and towards the 270 needed to avoid the follow-on.

Australia’s plight would have been worse if Dhoni had held on to a thin outside edge off Harbhajan Singh when Hussey had 25. By then, they were already three down, with the India bowlers using the conditions far better than their Australia counterparts. Matthew Hayden’s miserable series (0, 13, 0) continued with a third-ball duck, inside-edging a Zaheer delivery that jagged back in. It was the seventh time he had fallen to Zaheer in Tests, and the sense of anxiety in the Australia camp intensified soon after tea as a magical over from Ishant accounted for Ricky Ponting (right). Getting dramatic movement in the air and off the pitch, the Medusa-haired Ishant got one to move off the seam and trap Ponting leg before.

Simon Katich played some handsome strokes before once again failing to build on a start. Mishra, the Haryana legspinner seen as a long-term replacement for Kumble, got one to turn sharply and Katich’s defensive prod spun back on to the stumps. However, the biggest setback came in the final over of the day. Michael Clarke scored 400 runs in his debut series in India four years ago, but a few months after that, a wonderful slower ball from Stephen Harmison on the stroke of stumps at Edgbaston helped change the tide of an Ashes series. Here, it was the hugely impressive Mishra who dealt a potentially lethal blow to Australia’s hopes of saving the game. A cleverly disguised googly from round the wicket befuddled Clarke, and left Hussey to ponder a third-day escape with a lower middle order — Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Cameron White — that has 11 caps in total.

With Zaheer getting extravagant reverse swing and both spinners threatening, India are clear favourites. But as well as the bowlers performed, the man of the moment was undoubtedly Ganguly, who belied his unathletic reputation by running 53 singles in his 16th Test hundred.

Having conceded 311 runs on the opening day, Ponting was on the defensive from the start, with men on the rope on both sides of the wicket. Ganguly, on 54 overnight, continued in sedate fashion, and it was left to Dhoni to entertain a sparse crowd. A pull for six off Peter Siddle, the debutant, made it clear he wasn’t going to potter around as he had in Bangalore, and there were two huge sixes over long-on off White.

Ganguly, who would have been given out stumped off White when on 35 had it not been for Koertzen’s refusal to consult the third umpire, gave the legspinner some delayed gratification by holing out but by then the 109-run partnership had helped India establish a stranglehold on proceedings. Dhoni’s quest for a second Test century was ended by Siddle.

“I have no regrets,” said Ganguly later, reflecting on his decision to retire after this series. "I think it’s now time to go.” The parting will be all the sweeter if he can inflict even more sorrow on Australia.