Steve Smith drew first blood in the battle of the captains as Virat Kohli's hot temper threatened to boil over during India's humiliating first Test defeat.
There could not have been a more stark contrast between the pair's fortunes. As Smith joyously celebrated his maiden Test century in India, Kohli was losing his stack as he realised his team was crashing to a heavy defeat.
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Smith hits century as Australia set huge chase
India will need a mammoth 441 to win after a superb century from Steve Smith in Australia's second innings.
Kohli has matured with age, but he remains a firebrand who wears his heart on his sleeve in the field. The sight of him berating his teammates has not gone unnoticed by the Australians, who have seen how India can crumble when their captain is not leading the charge with sword and shield.
Three days of dominance by Australia clearly took its toll on Kohli, whose thought processes deteriorated as markedly as the Pune pitch.
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Kohli could do nothing about the string of shelled chances in the field, but the responsibility for burning India's reviews on ambitious challenges rests squarely at his feet.
India's erroneous use of DRS – which their board were long-time opponents of – left them powerless to overturn not out calls to Smith and Matthew Wade.
Topping it off, Kohli shouldered arms and was bowled by a straight ball from Steve O'Keefe, who even on this wicket had not been extracting prodigious turn.
The beaten batsman refused to give credit to O'Keefe, who once chaperoned a young Kohli when he was in Australia with India's academy team.
"If you don't apply yourself, any bowling attack can look dangerous," Kohli said about O'Keefe's bag of 12.
"It's as simple as that. Even a part-timer can get four wickets if you don't apply yourself.
"It rarely happens that four, five batsmen make errors in judgment in both the innings, especially with the way we batted in the last few months. I would say this was our worst batting performance and we need to accept that."
Kohli's match tally of 13 was his lowest in a Test at home where he had batted both innings.
"He was getting a little bit angry at the fielders for dropping catches," Smith noted.
"Players miss out every now and again and fortunately he missed out this game."
Smith made the most of six chances to play an innings he rated as up there with his best, though he has plenty to choose from.
None have arguably been as important as this one, coming in a series-opener in a region where Australia seldom have success and on a surface where it was only a matter of time before your number came up.
"I rode my luck and had a few lives, but you need a bit of luck on a wicket like that," Smith said.
"I was pleased to score a second innings hundred in India, formulate a different plan to how I normally play and problem solve on the spot.
"From that aspect I'm pleased with myself. It was great to get such a big lead and give our bowlers plenty to bowl at."
The expectations on Australia are bound to rise after their upset win in Pune, which means even if India were to bounce back in the next two Tests, the series will still be alive heading into the final match in Dharamsala. Unless, of course, Australia continue their dominance in Bangalore and Ranchi.
"The pressure was off us. Everyone wrote us off and expected India to win 4-0," Smith said. "That can't happen anymore.
"It's great to have won this first Test match. There's still a long way to go and India will come back hard. I'm really proud the way the boys have played this Test match."