Australia’s quartet of fast bowlers dismantled India for 161 in dishearteningly familiar scenes for the visitors on day one of the third Test at the WACA ground. Sent in to bat by Michael Clarke on a pitch promising early movement in addition to its customary bounce and pace, India were 4 for 63 at lunch, and subsided not long after tea to undo the grafting of Virat Kohli and VVS Laxman, who added 68 in the afternoon to momentarily blunt the hosts.

That partnership aside, India once again failed to cope with the swing, seam and disciplined line of the home attack, comprising Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc. Upon his dismissal of Laxman, Siddle sank to his haunches, in a sign of how much a hot day in Perth had drained Australia’s bowlers despite their regular wickets, and he did not re-emerge after tea.

Hilfenhaus removed Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir at either end of the morning session before helping to round up the tail, while Siddle accounted for Rahul Dravid, bowled for the fourth time in five innings. Harris was sturdy in his first Test appearance since November last year, and had the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar to show for it. Starc nabbed two of the last four wickets.

India’s openers were confronted by a pitch that looked green but was already beginning to show evidence of cracking, which suggested it was not as moist as it appeared. Nonetheless there was still plenty of swing, seam and bounce on offer to Australia’s bowlers, requiring astute judgment of line and length.

Sehwag had been at the centre of plenty of pre-match bluster surrounding his natural method, and the batsman looked tentative in his brief stay. Sehwag only faced four balls, the last of which was a beautifully pitched Hilfenhaus away swinger that flicked the edge and was well held by Ricky Ponting in the cordon.

Dravid walked to the wicket having been bowled in three out of four innings, and played at more than he might otherwise have done to avoid a repeat. He struggled for timing, however, and was so intent on defence that when Siddle delivered a leg side ball of full length, Dravid’s unnecessarily conservative posture turned it into a yorker that clattered into middle stump via the pads.

Tendulkar drew awed applause for a trio of straight drives from Siddle that recalled his sparkling 114 at the ground in 1992, but was not in total command. Harris was rewarded for two unstinting spells before lunch when he seamed one back to pin Tendulkar in front of the stumps.

Next over Hilfenhaus ended Gambhir’s stony-faced occupation, whizzing an offcutter across the left-hand batsman to prompt a push away from the body and an edge through to Brad Haddin. Gambhir admonished himself for succumbing to a nick for the fifth time in as many innings, the victim of another intelligent display of full, fast bowling from Australia.

Laxman and Kohli resumed more or less as India’s last hope of a substantial total, and their batting in the first hour of the afternoon was suitably grave. Starc, Hilfenhaus, Harris and Siddle continued to bowl well, but neither batsman offered quite so much in the way of probing bats that their predecessors had done. The ball grew older, the pitch settled under the sun, and the batsmen grew a little more comfortable.

Kohli played some sumptuous strokes, flicking off his pads with rare grace when the bowlers strayed towards leg stump, while Laxman slowly began to show evidence of his past domination of Australia, twice hooking imperiously to the backward square leg boundary. He had a narrow escape on nine, edging Hilfenhaus into the gully, where Michael Hussey was unsure of a low catch - video evidence was predictably inconclusive.

The stand was gathering strength and tea was less than 10 minutes away when Siddle made a critical break. Bowling full and swinging wider, he tempted Kohli to press too eagerly forward, and the low chance was held by David Warner at point. In Siddle’s next over Laxman pushed firmly at a length delivery and offered a catch to Clarke at first slip.

Starc had been threatening to bowl the perfect inswinger for most of the day, and it was Vinay Kumar who received it to be palpably lbw. MS Dhoni played an ordinary stroke at Hilfenhaus to be caught in the slips, though Zaheer Khan’s ugly smear at the same bowler was arguably worse. Ishant Sharma edged Starc behind to complete what had become a procession - the last six wickets falling for 30.