A second-ball dismissal on Day Three suggested a dramatic climax to a game that had hurtled along at breakneck pace, but there was no final twist in the tale at the Holkar Stadium on Friday. Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne made light of R Ashwin’s eviction of Usman Khawaja for nought to power Australia to a comfortable nine-wicket victory on the middle day of the third Test, the visitors taking just 77 minutes and 18.5 overs to race to 78 for one, chasing 76 for victory.

It was only India’s second defeat in their last 26 home Tests and their first in 25 months, since being conquered by Joe Root’s England in February 2021, but this should take the team a while to digest because they were hoist with their own petard.