Virat Kohli and Steve Smith traded barbs as emotions threatened to boil over after India fired their first shot for the series on a tense second day.
On the day several former greats believed would decide the series, the youngest player in the side, Matt Renshaw, led the way with another courageous half-century as Australia displayed their newfound resilience on the subcontinent. The visitors were 2/120 midway through the second session with Renshaw unbeaten on 51 after a riveting start to the day.
Smith's men had expected a fierce response from India after their awful performance in the first Test, and it finally came – but not before the hosts had moved to the verge of no return. Kohli has failed to land a blow with the bat but, along with talismanic spinner Ravi Ashwin, the combative captain whipped the crowd into a lather, turning the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium into a hostile cauldron for Australia's batsmen.
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No player was given a hotter reception than Smith, who only days previously threw down the gauntlet by publicly declaring the home side was feeling the pressure. Kohli greeted the Australian captain with several choice words as he marked his guard and did not relent throughout Smith's danger-filled stay at the crease.
The pair were constantly at it. Not even the drinks break provided sanctuary for Smith from Kohli, who was intent on getting inside his opposing number's head.
"Steve Smith has made a lot of runs in the last 12 months, two years; I can't recall anybody getting under his skin or saying a word to him," former captain Michael Clarke said on Star Sports. "Virat [has decided], 'We're not letting Steve Smith play his game, living in his bubble and making more runs, I'm going to stir him up and get something out of the Australian captain'."
Kohli succeeded in getting a reaction from Smith, whose customary "light sabre" leaves became more extravagant as the tension mounted. Like the iguana in the terrifying chase scene in the BBC's Planet Earth II documentary, Smith was under fire from all angles.
If he was not coming under attack from Kohli's verbal barrage, then it was Ashwin's fizzing off-breaks and pace pair Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav's fierce spells of reverse-swing threatening stumps. Smith's 81-minute knock of eight, which ended when he was caught in close off Ravindra Jadeja's left-arm spin, will go down as a failure in the scorebook but he did well to last that long. At the very least, he made his opponents work hard for his wicket – something Australian batsmen have not done in recent trips to Asia.
Renshaw was also in the thick of the drama, angering Ashwin and Kohli by holding his ground and preventing the Indian spinner from fielding off his own bowling.
Renshaw's second half-century of the series has vindicated selectors' faith in the 20-year-old Queenslander. The opener backed his defence, which so far has not been found wanting in the spin-friendly conditions. He was given a slice of luck against the quicks, with three edges piercing the slips for priceless boundaries – one of which was put down by Kohli on 29.
Renshaw scored only 25 runs in the first session against an Indian attack which realised it was now or never. "It's a pressure cooker out there, the scoreboard is barely moving," Matthew Hayden said.
First innings runs will be vital for Australia with the pitch already offering plenty of assistance for the spinners, as seen in David Warner's dismissal.
The opener was bowled by a ripping off-break which pitched well outside leg and clipped his off stump, though Warner did himself no favours by exposing all three stumps.
Remarkably, 11 of the 12 wickets have come from the Pavilion End.