Australia, at long last, stopped behaving like squeamish grandparents at a teen party and rediscovered the spunk. India, who stormed in here seeking a clean sweep, discovered that there was a loophole in their plan as reviled spinner Nathan Lyon (5/94 off 22.1 overs) spat fire and the in-form batsmen failed for once to capitalize on their starts.
The ghosts of the embarrassment against England resurfaced but the cricket made for splendid watching. Crucially, a vital ingredient of the classic India-Australia rivalry made a brief but thoroughly entertaining reappearance: verbal jousting. Even the crowd got into the act, chanting "loser, loser" at David Warner as the Aussie opener got a bit too hot under the collar and confronted Jadeja and Dhoni.
Not for the first time, India discovered that messing with a Kotla pitch to make it more potent was like asking the Hulk to take a shot of gamma radiation. If the opening day suggested things were drifting towards a quick conclusion in favour of the hosts, at close of play on Day Two things were in a state of distinctly unstable equilibrium.
Dhoni and Co were 266/8 in their first innings at stumps, just four runs ahead of the hosts. With the way this pitch is playing, anything touching three figures may turn out to be a difficult chase.
It didn't seem that way, though, when India made quick work of the last two Australian wickets, Ashwin pocketed another five-for and the opening pair of Murali Vijay and a pleasing Cheteshwar Pujara raced to a 108-run opening partnership.
However, there were ample signs that the crumbling pitch would be difficult to negotiate. Throughout, the Aussie pacers gave it their all, and with Lyon at the other end picking up the wickets, the fight was stifled out of India.
Vijay found it hard to middle the ball and within the first three overs, the ball had thrice hit cracks on the surface and jagged unpredictably.
India kept punishing the wayward offerings but Pujara was the first to bear the brunt, getting painfully struck on the fingers as a Pattinson delivery bounced more than he anticipated. He promptly went on the back foot to hit the next ball for four but once Watson introduced Lyon 19 overs into the innings, bowling the spinner unchanged for 22 overs, the story changed.
Pujara over-compensated for the turn and was bowled. Kohli played across and was trapped in front.
With the bounce and pace difficult to read, Tendulkar, playing probably his last Test on home soil, seemed tentative going forward after luckily surviving a close LBW appeal early on. He did give the crowd moments of fluent strokeplay after tea in his 53-ball stay but fell to a Lyon dynamite that skid through after raising a puff of dust.
Rahane's patchy debut was cut short by a soft dismissal as he guided Lyon to leg slip.
Vijay, meanwhile, fell to a bouncer from an impressive Siddle. India were 180/5 when Dhoni and Jadeja began a brief but crucial repair work, and the tail helped push India ahead.
If Glenn Maxwell - whose tryst with a plate of calamari gave him a stomach bug - had been fit to bowl, India may have been worse off. As Jadeja gave Lyon a rare work over, Maxwell got into the act late into the day's play, getting both Jadeja to pad up and the umpire to raise the finger! Now, India are under a lot of pressure to stretch the lead and restrict Australia on Day Three.
NUMBERS GAME
419: Runs scored by Murali Vijay @ 69.83, including two hundreds and a fifty. He is the fifth Indian opener to score 400 runs or more in a Test series against Australia. He is also the 16th player to score 400-plus runs in a series against Australia.
314: Run-tally achieved by MS Dhoni at an average of 78.50 in five innings - his career-best performance in a Test series, bettering the 307 (@ 61.40) in six innings against Australia in the 2008-09 series.
4: Number of bowlers getting four five-fors in a Test series for India. R Ashwin is the latest. The first three being Subhash Gupte vs New Zealand, in five Tests, in 1955-56; Bhagwat Chandrasekhar vs England, in five Tests, in 1972-73 and Harbhajan Singh vs Australia in three Tests in 2000-01.
3: Pragyan Ojha is the third fastest to get to 100 wickets for India, accomplishing the feat in 22 Tests. Erapalli Prasanna holds the Indian record. He reached the mark in 20 Tests. Anil Kumble took 21 Tests for his 100 wickets. England's George Lohmann achieved it in a world record 16 Tests.
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