Relentless contest will see this series go down in history

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In tune with cricket played after the onset of the football season, Steve Smith described the third Test match of this mesmerising series as the 'premiership quarter'.

Free-wheeling Australia caught off balance by their dominance

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Steve Smith's Australians have already passed the test they anticipated in India. Playing from behind, under the relentless grind of attritional cricket, they have shown the requisite discipline, patience and resilience.

Indian pair deliver lesson in substance on painfully long day

India's batsmen taught their guests a lesson over the weekend in Ranchi. The Australians have one day to show how much they learnt.

Smith's innings a masterpiece of carrying team on his shoulders

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Steve Smith has entered the Himalayan stage of his career: so many mountains of runs, it is hard for individual peaks to stand out. His unbeaten 178 at Ranchi deserves to be remembered as a masterpiece of concentration and strength of mind. Mocked and even excoriated since Bangalore, the Australian captain willed himself to carry his team on his shoulders, and he did.

Clearing things up: A bluffer's guide to Monkeygategate

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Who said sequels never work? The beauty of Monkeygate 2.0, or Monkeygategate as we call it here, is that it incorporates all the learnings from the original.

Did Australia cheat on DRS? Yes, but it's a sideshow

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The deep wrestle for advantage, not the surface shenanigans, was what made this one of the great Test matches.

Warne's criticism of O'Keefe was over-the-top nasty

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Moments after Nathan Lyon took the 20th Indian wicket to fall in Pune, my son commented: 'Dad, didn't you say Australia would lose the series six-nil?' His knowing smirk, which I had come to think of as the permanent face of 15-year-olds, this time expressed genuine, candid, open glee.

Subcontinent ready or subconsciously ready for defeat?

According to the bookies, India are more likely to beat Australia in their Test series than Winx is to beat Mister Ed. If the Border-Gavaskar series, starting in Pune on Thursday, were to be played a theoretical 11 times, Australia would be backable to win it just once. At best. And even that is beyond punters' capacity for optimism.

Strength of women's sport is its biggest weakness

At a forum on the future of professional women's sports last year, the retired Australian netball captain Liz Ellis asked despairingly: 'Would it be better for us if we were in the news for being out on the drink and disgracing ourselves?'