Ishant gets his fifth - for the series

Ishant Sharma has been a man more sinned against than sinning almost all tour, beating the bat too often for a bowler with only four wickets to his name. He allowed himself a laugh, however, after reaping a fifth, that of Michael Hussey. Ishant's natural angle and movement has made it notoriously difficult for him to win an lbw verdict against left-handers, but Dharmasena gave him the benefit of considerable doubt when he raised his finger in response to the appeal for a delivery that may just have pitched in line and may just have flicked the top right-hand corner of off stump.

On the face of it, Wriddhiman Saha made his first major mistake of the Test when he grassed a diving chance offered by Ponting in the penultimate over of Australia's second innings. But his flying attempt to grasp the edge contrasted with MS Dhoni's reticence in earlier matches to try for nicks going to the left of first slip - it is unlikely the captain would have gone for this one either.

Michael Clarke had made 37 and was pushing along merrily enough with Ricky Ponting when he played at and missed a delivery from Umesh Yadav, appearing to be slightly late on his attempted square forcing stroke. There was a noise of some description, and India's appeal was more than half-interested. Kumar Dharmasena's finger was raised, much to Clarke's shock. His head went straight down the moment he was given, and the head shook once or twice on the way off. A phantom edge to end the most dominant batting series of Clarke's career.

Clarke waited until 11 minutes after lunch to call his men in, a lead of 499 to their credit. The timing was not so surprising, and nor was India's requirement of 500 runs. More notable of was the manner of Clarke's gesture, a dismissive wave of the hand that suggested a referee admonishing a footballer. He may not have been happy with the preceding two overs, in which just three runs had been collected at a time when a more aggressive approach was more than merited.

Ryan Harris' two wickets were both referred to the third umpire for checks on a possible no-ball, and both showed that his foot was comfortably behind the line. After the first, Gautam Gambhir, Clarke noted how comfortably Harris' foot had been behind the line and engaged in animated conversation with the umpires. Their response, later relayed to the public sphere, was that Harris' bowling action had his back foot blocking the umpire's view of his front, thus encouraging officiators to check. Harris has only bowled four no-balls in his Test career.