To understand why India were taking nothing for granted on the third afternoon of the Visakhapatnam Test against England, you only have to go back to a game that was played five years ago this month.
After Michael Clarke’s sublime 151 had taken Australia to a score of 284 at Newlands, Ryan Harris and Shane Watson skittled South Africa for just 96.
The lead was 188, and the game surely over. Right? Wrong.
South Africa returned the favour, with Australia’s dismal second innings spanning just 18 overs and 47 runs. Centuries from Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla then ensured that the target of 236 was surpassed with some ease.
Virat Kohli is not the type to pore over cricket’s back pages, but when India slipped to 17 for two and then 40 for three after establishing a first-innings lead of 200, there were a couple of alarm bells ringing.
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• Osman Samiuddin: England should not draw too many conclusions from drawn first Test in India
Stuart Broad, bowling with a strained tendon in his right foot, got rid of both openers, and James Anderson, playing his first match since August, summoned up a magnificent reverse-swinging delivery that jagged back to take out Cheteshwar Pujara’s middle stump.
Ajinkya Rahane, who has yet to leave his mark on the series, then experienced plenty of anxious moments as England glimpsed a way back into the game.
At the other end, however, Kohli was serenity itself. A couple of delightful drives got him going, and the rate of scoring rarely dropped as he eased to 56 off just 70 balls by stumps.
Even on the first three days, it has not been the easiest pitch to bat on. Balls have kept low, and there has been sharp turn on offer at times.
Kohli has been the standout performer by a distance, having stroked a 167 in the first innings while adding 226 with Pujara, who scored a third consecutive Test hundred after being dropped during the series in the Caribbean.
When Kohli was dismissed in the first innings, India were 351 for five. That soon became 363 for seven.
That they added nearly 100 more was down to the skill shown by Ravichandran Ashwin, who buttressed his all-round credentials with a classy 95-ball 58.
There was stout support from Jayant Yadav (35), making his debut, and the eventual total of 455 was at least 50 above par for the surface.
England too were grateful to their all-rounders for rescuing them from the depths of 80 for five, the score they had started the Day 3 on.
Neither Ben Stokes nor Jonny Bairstow careered along as they so often do when in good touch, but they showed plenty of fight to stave off the Indian challenge for most of the third morning.
It took a superb delivery from Umesh Yadav, whose figures do not reflect how well he has bowled so far – to dislodge Bairstow, and after that, it was the Ashwin show.
His lack of success against England would undoubtedly have grated with a man who is a self-confessed cricket geek, and his first five-wicket haul against them has put India in a dominant position.
Ben Duckett, whose front-foot movement has been awry, and Joe Root had already fallen to him on the second day, and it was the wicket of Stokes – trapped on the back foot – that opened the floodgates after lunch.
Adil Rashid, another with all-round ambitions, struck six fours in a sprightly 32, but Ashwin’s wiles were too much for Broad and Anderson.
Since 2011, when India have made more than 400 in a home Test, no team has managed to get past the follow-on target.
England halted India’s home winning streak at five in Rajkot, where it needed a resolute unbeaten 49 from Kohli to spare Indian blushes on the final day, but it will take a quite stupendous fourth-innings batting effort to deny the hosts a 1-0 lead here.
The class of Kohli and Ashwin has seen to that.
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