SYDNEY: Scott Boland was steaming in at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In fact, he has been all through the series — Adelaide, Melbourne and so on. And every time he ran in, he made India pay. In a series where he has played three games, the Victorian has already taken 19 wickets at 14.42.

He is by and large the best bowler for Australia. In fact, at one point he had a better average than that of Jasprit Bumrah (13.06) in this series. Here, on a breezy Saturday afternoon, Boland had already castled KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal before following it up with the wicket of Virat Kohli, who potentially played his last Test on Australian soil.

Taking strike against him was Rishabh Pant. The keeper-batter on day one batted for 98 balls, and took multiple body blows on his way to what was perhaps his slowest 40 in Test cricket. After the kind of dismissals he had in Melbourne, Pant was under a lot of pressure and the pitch too was such that he had to spend time in the middle playing an out-of-character innings. So much so that his approach left the Australian camp surprised.

Here, as Pant took guard, no one knew what to expect. Would he fight it out as he was asked to do in the first innings or was he going to be the Rishabh Pant that the world has seen from the time he got his first Test runs with a six? Up against the most dangerous Australian bowler, Pant cleared it all up on the very first delivery he faced. He charged at Boland and deposited the pacer over long-on, making the 47,000 fans, the media and the Indian dressing room sit up and gasp.

It was just a trailer of what he had in store. He flicked Pat Cummins through midwicket, and in the air, flat-batted Boland down the ground before cutting Beau Webster for a four. He followed it up with two consecutive boundaries in the same over — one a falling pull and another inside out over extra cover.