Three wickets needed, a wearing SCG pitch, the light fading, India trying to cling on for a draw. It could have been the 2008 finish all over again, but this time Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar managed to hold the Australians off.
On the fourth afternoon at the SCG, Australia rollicked along at better than a run a ball in their second innings, hoping to beat India and the weather.
It is hard to decide what was more predictable on a belter of a Sydney pitch, the Steven Smith century that was raised on day two or the Virat Kohli hundred that arrived on day three. They now have four centuries each for the series
Everywhere you turned on the second day in Sydney there were stats, and Steven Smith was at the centre of most of them. But at the end of the day the only figure that really mattered was 501. That was the deficit India faced at stumps
Another year, another David Warner hundred, another Steven Smith fifty. Australia's two leading scorers of 2014 began 2015 in similarly productive fashion
Steven Smith was "satisfied" with a 2-0 victory over India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and lauded his bowlers for performing so well on helpless tracks
Australia won this series in spite of some of the flattest pitches seen down under for years. It is three decades since Melbourne and Sydney both ended in stalemate
Australia's captain Steven Smith scored yet another century - his fourth of the series - to help his side draw the fourth and final Test match against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday.
Arachnophobia is alive and well in our game, and it's all good
Though lazily typecast as the dour counterpoint to Warner's pyrotechnics, Rogers has shaped many an innings to fit the prevailing circumstances
When R Ashwin was actually onto something, however briefly, the other end mattered. If only India can sort out the other end, all the runs that Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have been scoring might amount to something
Stats highlights from the fourth day of the fourth Test between Indian and Australia, in Sydney
Australia had to settle for a draw in the Sydney Test, but the sight of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood hooping the reverse-swinging Kookaburra around late on day five was an encouraging one for the future
Steven Smith had a tough day as captain in Brisbane too, but there he maintained an outward calm at least; today, as Virat Kohli and KL Rahul gathered their runs, he was harried and did not handle things at optimum levels
Australia captain Steven Smith appeared to complain that the Spidercam used by host broadcaster Channel Nine interfered with his line of sight when he dropped a straightforward catch on day three
Two single-figure scores on debut, a sitter dropped to start the Sydney Test, a few misfields and everybody feared if we would even get to watch KL Rahul's normal game. But he got through his nerves and secured a maiden Test hundred
Virat Kohli sledges, he celebrates aggressively, he stares, he gets angry - with his team and the opposition - but at the end of it all he's scored a mountain of runs and refuses to be beaten by Australia
Our correspondent gets acquainted with Australian fauna, and refuses to answer questions about his wardrobe
Stats highlights from the third day of the fourth Test between India and Australia in Sydney
Mitchell Starc, the Australia fast bowler, has been reprimanded after admitting to a Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct during the second day's play in the fourth Test against India at the SCG
He was India's best player in England, but how would he cope with Australian conditions when the Kookaburra ball fails to swing? Sydney showed he wasn't able to
They give the impression they haven't practised enough or come in with well-formed plans of attack
Australia's captain Steven Smith admits he did not see Mitchell Starc's send-off to the Indian opener M Vijay in the first over of the visitors' innings on day two of the Sydney Test, but agrees the practice should be ended
Australia's top six batsmen scored more than 50 for the first time in Test cricket, but none of the batsmen was anywhere near as masterful as the captain Steven Smith
Stats highlights from the fifth day of the fourth Test between India and Australia, in Sydney
Stats highlights from the second day of the fourth Test between India and Australia in Sydney
By all accounts it has been a horrendous start to Test cricket for KL Rahul, both with the bat and in the field
India's bowling coach B Arun has conceded his team's bowlers need to be more disciplined, and that a lot of work needs to be done on them, after India conceded 348 runs on the opening day of the SCG Test against Australia
The amount of T20 cricket India play has left most of their batsmen unable to compile big Test innings and their bowlers unable to produce multiple spells of accurate bowling away from home
The pitch, the weather, the bowling, the fielding, it was all made for opening batsmen on day one at the SCG, and David Warner and Chris Rogers made it count while paying rich tribute to another opener: Phillip Hughes
Stats highlights from the first day of the fourth Test between India and Australia, in Sydney
Faced with the negative momentum that threatened to drag India down, Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar showed plenty of self-possession to pull their team to safety
David Warner admitted he struggled for composure in the Australian dressing room mere minutes before the start of the fourth Test at the SCG, following a pre-match tribute to Phillip Hughes
Steven Smith has enlarged upon the full reasons for his later than expected declaration on the final day of the Boxing Day Test against India
Apart from their first names and left-handedness, Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson share something else in common - their own batsmen hate the thought of facing up to them in the nets
