After a fruitless, laborous first session in the now hot and humid Mohali, India fought back to restrict Australia to 273 for seven at stumps on Day Two. This was after the visitors looked in control at lunch at 109 for no loss.

The wickets, at the end of the day’s play were evenly distributed among the spinners and the seamer, Ishant Sharma. The lanky pacer struck in the final session of the day to dismiss Brad Haddin (21) and Moises Henriques (0) in a single over. Three wickets, including those of David Warner (71) and Michael Clarke (0) went to the ‘part-timer’, Ravindra Jadeja. The quotations were added because it does seem unfair to call someone who has slowly risen to be his captain’s second-choice spinner as a part-timer. Jadeja now has 14 wickets to his name in this series. Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha also took a wicket each in the post-lunch session as the Australians never really recovered after they lost their first wicket after putting on 139 on the board.

Australia got off to a bright start after electing to bat first. Clarke won the toss for the third time in a row in the series and lost no time in letting his batsmen exploit the conditions. After a tumultuous last four days for the Australian camp, Warner and Ed Cowan provided some signs that the team has put the Homeworkgate saga behind them and have started on a fresh new slate.

There were no signs of the rains that had washed out the entire first day’s play at Mohali, with the temperature in the early thirties and humidity crossing 90 per cent. Any hopes the scattering of Australian fans had of a cooler climate after Day One evaporated as soon the sun shone in all its glory on the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium.

Aptly enough, the Australian team bid goodbye to their days of gloom and welcomed the sunshine on Friday morning. On a pitch that is as flat as a pancake, with just a shade of dry, yellow grass cover, the Australian openers made efficient use of the conditions after being put into bat by their captain, Michael Clarke, and propelled Australia towards a good first-innings total. The Indian pacers were finding no early help off the surface, like they did in Chennai and Hyderabad, and the outcome was evident from the first over itself.

Warner got off the mark with two crisp boundaries through mid-off and cover off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who learnt very early in the innings that he was going to have to toil hard for wickets. Ishant, sharing the new ball from the other end, was his usual self, bowling a decent line but struggling with length. Any loose deliveries from the two bowlers were punished by Warner, while Cowan dug into his usual, patient innings.

Warner and Cowan had taken lunch at 109 for no loss and looked good to put on a big. They put on 30 more runs in the second session and were looking almost invincible on a track that ceased to assist the bowlers. Enter the ‘part-timer’, Jadeja.

In the 12th over after lunch, Jadeja brought the swift Australian momentum from the first session to a stop as he dismissed Warner and Clarke on successive deliveries. It was only the second time in his 91-Test career that Clarke had come one-down. He had hinted he would do so in one of his several pre-match interviews, in a bid to provide solidity to the top order. The experiment, however, did not provide the required result as he was stumped first ball after charging down the track in his usual aggressive instinct. It was the eighth time that Clarke had been stumped in his career, five out of which were against India. It was also the Australian captain’s second golden duck in his career; coincidentally, the first occurrence was also against India at the SCG in 2008.

India’s efforts in the first hour after lunch made for better reading — 26 runs and two wickets. Dhoni was operating Jadeja and Ashwin in tandem and the duo were doing a terrific job in containing the Australians. While Jadeja kept things tight from his end, Ashwin flighted it up and invited the batsmen to take the risks and play their shots, increasing the chances of taking wickets. Funnily enough, though, it was Jadeja who was flourishing in the wickets column in Mohali.

India’s confidence grew with the two wickets as they hunted around for more. Virat Kohli, filling in for the dropped Virender Sehwag at first slip, then spilled a chance off Pragyan Ojha. The left-armer, back into the playing XI after sitting out the first two Tests was being pushed to the sidelines by Ashwin and Jadeja and looked rather deflated. However, the Hyderabad lad finally got into the thick of things in the last 30 minutes of the session as he scalped the struggling Phil Hughes (2).

Australia thus lost three wickets in 14 overs for just 12 runs. It took a spirited 29-run partnership between Cowan and Steven Smith to take Australia into the break without further damage. However, after Ashwin got rid of Cowan (86) after tea, it all went downhill for the visitors as India clawed back into the match.

Smith, unbeaten on 58 and the only recognised batsman left, would look to take Australia as close as possible to a par 350 on Day Three.

Even India wouldn’t have dreamed of an end so terse. A couple of hours into the opening session on the fourth day of the second Test, all hopes of a typical Australia fightback vaporized like acetone on warm skin. India ran away winners by an innings and 135 runs, having needed just 35 overs on Tuesday to take the eight wickets that stood between them and a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

The victory took MS Dhoni past Sourav Ganguly as India’s most successful Test captain: 22 wins in 45 matches, to Ganguly’s 21 in 49. For Australia, the statistics were less kind. They became the first team ever to lose by an innings after declaring their first innings closed.

Cheteshwar Pujara was named Man of the Match for his first innings 204, his second Test double hundred. India were also served well by Murali Vijay’s 167 in the first essay.

Resuming on 74/2, the visitors collapsed like a badly baked cake to 131 all out. The central figures were once again India’s spinners – although Australia’s batsmen displayed very little intent in prolonging their stays in the middle. Ravichandran Ashwin (5/63) and left-arm spinning all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (3/33) did the most of the damage.

Jadeja opened the bowling with Ishant Sharma and turned in 18 overs on the trot, his haul including the prized scalp of Michael Clarke (16), done in with a delectable away turner that slipped past the Aussie captain’s defence and took out off stump. Although Clarke’s dismissal portended the shape of things to come, the going was sorry for his team right from the get-go.

Overnight batsman Shane Watson (10) became Ishant’s first victim of the match - his first, indeed, in the last three matches – in the third over of the morning. The all-rounder, playing purely as a batsman here, was out chasing easy runs, patting a delivery down the leg-side to Dhoni behind wicket.

A sequence of rued chances followed. Ed Cowan, who had also resumed overnight, was dropped on 31 by substitute Shikhar Dhawan at short leg, off the bowling of Jadeja. Clarke too survived a vociferous appeal for a catch down the leg-side against Ishant, and responded by going inside-out for six against the left-arm spinner in the next over.

The writing was now on the wall. Clarke was out to a Jadeja beauty, the kind that undid Moises Henriques in the first innings and Cowan, who was dropped again (on 44) by Dhawan at forward short-leg, finally ran out of luck. The left-handed Aussie opener went for the cut against Jadeja, the resultant edge ricocheted off Dhoni’s pads and was pouched alertly by Virender Sehwag at slip. Jadeja next ran out Moises Henriques (0) with a direct hit from short cover.

IPL millionaire Glenn Maxwell (8) was trapped ‘lbw’ off an Ashwin carom ball. Peter Siddle (4) departed to a mirror image of Cowan’s dismissal, the edge taken by Sehwag after it lobbed up from Dhoni’s pads. Mathew Wade and James Pattinson became Ashwin’s fourth and fifth victims respectively, the latter wicket ending things overwhelmingly in the home team’s favour.

Amid heavy security and water-tight bandobast, Australia head into the second Test against India with as much of a demoralizing burden as England went into their Mumbai game last year with. A match down and with the certainty of vile turners to follow: the ends of teams on the subcontinent have always followed a set pattern, a trend that Alastair Cook-led England bucked with élan as they turned things around for a 2-1 series win after having lost the opening encounter.

Australia’s site of resurrection – if that happens at all – will be Hyderabad, where a series of bomb blasts ravaged normal life a few weeks ago. The visitors seek a mandate similar to England’s after a resounding loss at Chepauk. The means at their disposal, however, are not quite the same. In Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann, England had two spinners able to hold their own against India’s batsmen. Australia lack a big turner and their only dedicated spinner in the first Test, offie Nathan Lyon, went for over 200 runs in a show devoid of any impact.

The visitors’ trust in opting to play to their strengths – a four-strong pace attack – didn’t have the same effect as India’s contingent of three spinners, who wreaked havoc on a crumbling Chennai pitch with uneven bounce. The track at Hyderabad is expected to follow in the same footsteps; in which case Australia will be seriously considering replacing a fast bowler with either left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty or all-rounder Steve Smith. Neither, though, is in the class of Swann or Panesar.

Clarke has also stated that going in with an unchanged eleven is also an option since he thinks the Hyderabad pitch will have something in it for the fast bowlers.

It can be safely said that it was MS Dhoni’s lightning double-century that took the game away from Australia when things were rather evenly poised. But as much as Dhoni’s innings played a part, the visitors’ own batting was bereft of application.

Aside from the assured Michael Clarke and the fighting debutant Moises Henriques, the entire line up capitulated to slower bowling. Clarke displayed impeccable use of the feet as he stroked a first innings century; Henriques made good his first Test with two valiant fifties, the second of them unbeaten on a disintegrating wicket. None of the others were assured in their dealings with R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and even Harbhajan Singh.

IPL’s million-dollar Glenn Maxwell may get a look-in to boost a flailing middle-order, as might Usman Khawaja, who could serve as a direct replacement of the struggling Phil Hughes. Since Shane Watson is playing purely as a batsman, the onus on him of reviving Australia with Clarke cannot be over-stated.

India for once approach a game slightly better placed that their rivals. Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Dhoni looked in great form in Chennai and their only worry appears to be the continuously failing opening combination. Virender Sehwag and Murali Vijay looked miserable in the first game, but Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane may have to wait a while to get a look in, since Dhoni has said in media interactions that he would like to give the Sehwag-Vijay pairing a few more chances.

Another point to deliberate upon would be the inclusion (or exclusion) of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha – whose homeground is Hyderabad – in place of Harbhajan or Jadeja. The off-spinner lost his radar in the first innings and bowled marginally better in the second. Jadeja was consistent, kept up the pressure on batsmen and performed his role of the extra spinner with aplomb; his batting, although it has yet to appear on the international arena, is likely to keep him in the mix.

There is also an outside chance that Dhoni might relinquish a seamer to front a four-pronged spin attack, considering how India’s medium pacers did absolutely nothing in Australia’s second essay at Chennai. In the last Test at Uppal’s Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Ashwin claimed 12 for 85 as India thrashed New Zealand by an innings and 115 runs. Expect more of the same.

The Squads: Australia (from): Michael Clarke (captain), Ed Cowan, David Warner, Phillip Hughes, Shane Watson, Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade (wk), Nathan Lyon, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Glenn Maxwell (12th man; India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.