This was the sixteenth Test win for Virat Kohli and a special one.

“’Til now, this is the best one," Kohli said. "It was quite an emotional game for us, quite draining as well.”

Steve Smith ended up having what he described himself as a “brain fade”.  Virat Kohli felt that it was more than that and his own temperament was clearly tested as he was seen to have several lengthy discussions with the umpires.

 Australia got into a muddle with the Decision Review System (DRS).

David Warner chose to use the first of his side’s two reviews when on 17 he was given out lbw by umpire Richard Illingworth.  It was a tight call and could have gone either way but using it proved to be very costly.

When the other on-field umpire Nigel Llong made a poor decision giving Shaun Marsh out lbw when he didn’t play a shot, Australia were hesitant in using their last review.  They chose not to but should have as replays indicated that the ball was missing the stumps by quite a margin.  Smith was at the other end and admitted afterwards that his message to Marsh was misunderstood.

“We weren’t entirely sure (whether to review),” Smith said. “I said “Go” as in, go and have a look at it and he turned around and started walking.  I should have probably put my hands up and done it.”

The grubber Smith received from Umesh Yadav for his own dismissal appeared to hit him right in front of the wicket.  Smith knew what an important moment this was.  With what seemed like the prompting of Peter Handscomb he turned towards the Australian dressing room trying to get some information as to whether to review the decision or not.  Of course he was caught up in the moment but this was blatantly unfair. 

Afterwards he admitted that he’d been in the wrong.

 “I looked down to Petey (Handscomb) and Petey said, “Look up there” and I turned around and said, “What do you reckon?” and it was a bit of a brain fade on my behalf and I shouldn’t have done that.  I was looking at our boys,” Smith said.

Nigel Llong quickly stepped in and sent Smith on his way but it had raised the ire of Virat Kohli who also became involved.

“We take the decision on the field ourselves,” Kohli said. “ We don’t ask for confirmation upstairs.” 

“I saw that two times while I was batting out there.  I pointed it out to the umpire as well, that it’s happened twice, that I’ve seen their players looking upstairs for confirmation.  We observed that and told match referee also and the umpires that they’ve been doing that for the last three days and this has to stop.”

Kohli disagreed with Smith’s assessment of the incident when Australia’s captain was given out.

“The way I left the ball in Pune, getting hit on the off stump, that was a brain fade but if something is going on for three days then that’s not a brain fade, as simple as that,” Smith said.

Tensions were high and Kohli was pumped.  He kept motioning to the crowd to become even more vociferous and they responded to his every gesture.

“A lot of people talk about the head of the snake but I think that the snake did pretty well by itself,” Kohli said. “ It’s not just about one individual.  I’m pretty happy if they keep focusing on the head of the snake and (a) snake can sting from a lot of directions.’

India eventually prevailed by 75 runs after bowling Australia out for 112 in their second innings and Ravi Ashwin was named player of the match after taking 6-41 in the second innings. 

With the series level at one Test each it left the Border-Gavaskar Trophy still up for grabs with two Tests to play.