The fury with which Hayden went after the bowling was laced with generous doses of desperation, and 24 balls and 29 runs later, he failed to connect with an ungainly swipe off Harbhajan Singh’s second delivery and was given out leg-before. Four balls after that, it was Simon Katich’s turn to go for an uncharacteristic slash. The ball skewed off the splice towards point, hung in the air for a while before it started dipping; Sachin Tendulkar, a little slow off the mark, made up for it with a fine lunge to grab it inches off the ground. For the second time in three days, he looked 16 again.

The tea break did nothing to ease the visitors’ nerves. Mike Hussey, by far the best Aussie batsman in this series, didn’t last long, caught so palpably in front going for a pull against Harbhajan that he might as well have walked.

The off-spinner, fired up, was on 299 wickets and started looking too hard for his 300th, but it was Ishant Sharma instead who charged into the party.

He flew in from the pavilion end after tea, face contorted in a gawky grimace. The eighth ball of his second spell landed on a length well outside off-stump, Ponting saw it cut in, plonked his foot forward and brought his bat close behind. For five seconds, he held the pose, staring at the spot where the ball had pitched, then turning back to look at the shattered stumps.

Shane Watson got a similar delivery a few overs later and went back instead of forward. He got rapped on the pads, plumb in front. From a breezy 49 for no loss, Australia were down to a shocking 58 for five, before Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin stitched together an unbroken 83-run partnership that ensured, if nothing else, that the match went into the final day.

Test cricket has a tendency, occasionally, to serve up some snooze-inducing fare, not all of which is intriguing and absorbing. It also provides days like Monday, which are played out at breakneck speed.

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir started off in exactly the same insolent mood that they were in on Sunday evening. At 100 for no loss overnight, they hit the ground running. It’s hard to imagine any batsman managing to keep pace with an in-the-mood Sehwag, but Gambhir did.

He started the day with a spanking cover drive off Shane Watson, and only got more aggressive from there on. He walked down the pitch to the faster bowlers, flicking and driving them over the in-field and the zone he was in, White’s as-yet harmless leg-breaks weren’t really going to trouble him.

He was lucky to survive a caught behind appeal when on 88 replays showed quite a fat edge but Asad Rauf was unmoved — but fell soon after, eight short of what would’ve been only his second 2nd innings century.

Gambhir fell right after celebrating his second Test century, his first since coming back to the team in Sri Lanka, but two promotions — Dhoni came in at number three and Sourav Ganguly at four — paid off as the run-rate, despite Ponting’s ultra-defensive fields, never slowed down.

In 2005, at this venue, Pakistan went into the final day with four wickets in hand and managed to save the game — Abdul Razzak and Kamran Akmal the heroes that day. But chances are, especially if they get an early breakthrough on Tuesday, India should head to Delhi ahead in the series.