The second day of the Ahmedabad Test is one that Cameron Green will never forget. He scored his maiden Test hundred sharing in a double hundred stand for the fifth wicket with Usman Khawaja.

Undefeated on 49 overnight, Green brought up his half-century in the first over of the day by stroking a single to long off.

Australia were in total control during the opening session after playing carefully for the first half an hour, scoring fourteen runs in the first ten overs.

When Umesh Yadav came on they were able to use the extra pace on the ball to up the scoring rate but the first hour still only produced four boundaries. These were highlighted by Green’s late cut off Ashwin and a delightful stroke played off his legs by Khawaja to bisect the two men on the boundary.

When their stand reached 115 it became the highest partnership by either side in the series.

It took the return of Ravi Jadeja before either batter looked in any trouble. Having bowled the opening over of the day, Jadeja was taken out of the attack until half an hour before lunch.His first ball beat Khawaja’s inside edge and went for four byes and, three balls later, he managed to get past the settled batter’s opposite edge.

Green was having no such problems at the other end against Yadav, producing three glorious drives through the extra cover area in one over as the pacer pitched the ball up.

When lunch came Khawaja was on exactly 150. It was the fifth time that he’d reached that milestone with each of those efforts scored against different countries. He would have had one eye on making a Test double hundred for the first time but he would probably have been just as keen to stay with Green who was on 95 at the break. It was Green’s highest Test score and left him tantalising close to his maiden Test hundred, an achievement that Khawaja deserved to share with him having guided him through his innings.

It didn’t take long to arrive. Green always seems so calm and assured at the crease but showed just a touch of nerves before facing Shami after easing a single off Jadeja’s opening over after the break. There was an extra hop on his heels away from the crease before he approached it to get into position. He then retook his mark just to ensure everything was in order before he faced.There would be no problems at all as he saw out the last two balls of the over. The pair then ran a single off the first ball of Jadeja’s next over and the moment had arrived. Jadeja’s next delivery was slightly loose giving Green some room to free his arms and lash a cut shot behind point to the boundary.

Australia’s all-rounder had had to wait until his twentieth Test and twenty-eight innings to reach the landmark but it brought out the broadest of smiles.

It was, perhaps, surprising that it had taken so long. Green had achieved at least one significant score in all but one of the series that he’s played in. He’d passed fifty on six previous occasions and, in first class cricket, had struck eight hundreds in forty-nine innings.

Not long after that the fifth wicket pair’s partnership had extended to two hundred runs but was to end soon afterwards.

Neither player had been using the sweep shot even though it is one of Khawaja’s attacking options but, having scored his hundred, Green was upping the tempo. On 114 he tried the shot against Ravi Ashwin but the ball brushed the bottom of his glove and Srikar Bharat had made good ground behind the stumps to hold on to the chance.

Minutes later, in the same over, Alex Carey had to make the very long walk back to the pavilion at the huge stadium after failing to score when he got a thick outside edge that was easily held at short third man.

Mitchell Starc didn’t last long either falling for 6 when he was caught at short leg for Ashwin’s fourth of the innings

With seven wickets down, the questions now were whether Khawaja could score his first double-hundred in Tests and go on to carry his bat.

The first ball of the final session answered them both. Cheteshwar Pujara was seen giving the team talk before the resumption of play with Rohit Sharma absent from the field. No sooner than he’d taken over the captaincy duties than he was asking for a review.

Axar Patel delivered the first ball after tea and somehow got it past Khawaja’s bat and struck him in front with Pujara’s use of the review proving to be astute. It was a slightly lazy shot from Khawaja but totally forgivable as it was immediately following a break and after being at the crease for 611 minutes.This was by far the longest innings in India by an Australian smashing Graeme Yallop’s 520 minutes at Kolkata in 1979 and the third longest by any visiting batter. His 422 deliveries faced were also more than Yallop’s 392 for another record.

Having finally seen the back of Khawaja, India might have thought that they’d wrap up what has been a fragile Australian tail during this series. It wasn’t to be.

The ninth wicket pair added a further 70 runs. Todd Murphy went on to record his highest first class score before he fell lbw to Ashwin for 41 while Nathan Lyon also broke two personal records.

For the first time he batted for more than two hours in a Test innings and he’d never faced as many as the 96 deliveries that he needed for his 34 runs. Eventually, he was last out as Australia were dismissed for 480 with Ashwin finishing with 6-91.

Australia may have been disappointed not to have taken a wicket or two in the ten overs India faced before stumps as they reached 36 without loss but it won’t have put a dampener on a special day for a number of players.

More to come.