Throughout the lunch break on the second day in Pune, Jayant Yadav was working at the practice wickets with coach Anil Kumble. He had not done well in the Australian innings, and was using this time to work out chinks. Little did he know, 30 minutes into the post-lunch session, he would be batting, trying to help his team out of a precarious 95/7.

During the same lunch break, on the adjacent practice wicket, Australian left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe was working with their spin coach Sridharan Sriram. “I wasn’t happy with my first spell. I was bowling in my comfort zone, like I would back in Australia. During lunch, I worked on my pace and flight, and some variations, and I thought it would work later in the series. It worked today,” he said.

Those last words could be described as the biggest understatement of 2017 yet. Sample this. By the end of his first two spells, O’Keefe had returned figures of 0/30 in nine overs. In the next 4.1 overs, he routed the Indian batting line-up with six wickets for five runs to end with figures of 6-35.

India collapsed from 94/3 to 105 all out in the space of 48 balls. Their total innings’ time was 173 minutes. Twenty-year-old Matt Renshaw had batted for 168 minutes in the Australian first innings, never mind his toilet break.

India’s collapse was a summation of some brilliant bowling and catching by Australia, plus a couple loose shots. They worked hard against in-form batsmen: Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. And once the rest were under pressure, they did not let it up.

Starc begins it, O’Keefe ends it

The trio, who have scored 2775 runs in nine Tests this home season, together scored 16 runs in this 10th one. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc induced extra bounce with their sharp lines to get rid of the first two. And, Kohli had an off day, falling to the law of averages, set up nicely with some help from Starc.

India were struggling at 44/3, and yet this was familiar territory. They have been here before, in this very home season. They were placed at 46/3 and 106/6 against New Zealand in Kolkata. Then, they were under persistent pressure against England in Rajkot, and went on win at Mohali from 156/5 in the first innings.

In each of these instances, some or the other batsman, irrespective of their batting position, rose to the moment and delivered. Till this day, the Indian batting line-up, replete with their world-class top-order batsmen and the firing lower order, was a well-oiled machine. They all came unstuck together.

“We were bound to have one bad day. We were in a decent position when KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane were batting. But we lost those four wickets in the space of 5-6 balls. That pushed us back and there were a couple soft dismissals as well,” said Kumble.

‘One bad day’

There is one keen difference though. The pitch here at Pune is unlike any seen previously in this home season. It needs more perseverance, and a bit more caution, from the batsmen especially settled ones.

This is where KL Rahul’s untimely shot to go over the top against O’Keefe comes under the scanner. With the score reading 93/4, there was no need for it. Only a couple overs earlier, he had played a reverse sweep and got four runs for it. Did it encourage him to attack further? Playing your natural game is all very fine, but Rahul has an aggressive streak about him. At times he plays too many shots, perhaps in order to make an impression that he is not a one-trick pony.

In that situation, with the reverse sweep paying off, Rahul needed to borrow a leaf from Matt Renshaw. The 20-year-old opener had attacked Jadeja on the first day, hitting him for a six, but that was when Australia were moving steady with an 80-odd run stand for the opening wicket. Later, when they were struggling at 149/3, Renshaw ground out the runs and helped push the score past 200.

Poor shot selection, even poorer catching

Rahul’s poor shot selection was the first domino to fall, and then the wickets came in a heap. Previously, this line-up might have responded brilliantly, but on a difficult pitch, Australia did not give them time to breath.

Then, there is the luck bit. A wicket as this inadvertently produces chances – edges and nicks flying off – where they end up is also a factor. Australia backed up their bowling plans with full-proof catching. It was almost as if they had decided not to let anything slip by, even half-chances. In that light, Peter Handsomb’s catches off Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin must be put in a video guide for dummies.

And then a copy of that video should be mailed to the Indian team’s hotel. The batsmen, as a unit, can be let off for their first collective bad day in office through this entire season. But their fielding afterwards closed all doors of making a swift comeback in this game. They tried too hard in the field, almost hoping to induce mistakes from Australian batsmen, rather than working them out with patience.

Four catches were dropped: Three off Steve Smith as he ground out a half-century in a perfect display of batting on this weary wicket, and one off Renshaw. That last one was a case in point of Indian fielders doing too much – Vijay butting in ahead of Rahane in what was a regulation chance at slip. Then, two Decision Review System reviews in the space of eight balls reeked of desperation.

There have been days when Kohli has let things drag a bit, but a winning result helps paper over any cracks. For the first time in his captaincy reign though, there was a clear sighting of drooped shoulders. For the first time under his leadership, India suffered a certifiable poor all-round day on the field. They were pushed into a corner, and for once, this home season, they simply could not fight back.