The centrepiece of Pant’s innings was an extraordinary six off Cummins, in which he fell sideways and rolled while ladling a full ball on off stump over two men set in the square leg deep.

Perhaps only David Warner – watching this day from the media box – has played such a shot previously in Test cricket, so it could be said to be a scoop and almost an exclusive. In that moment, he was less Pant, more hyperventilate.

Reddy met off-spinner Nathan Lyon with a series of reverse sweeps. This is orthodox, of course, except that Lyon has 530 Test wickets and Reddy had neither run nor wicket to begin. This is the IPL effect. Whatever else familiarity breeds, it demystifies and demythologises. It also takes the temperature out of days like this, which once might quickly have overheated.

In the amped-up proceedings, Australia held good catches and dropped sitters, and in one astonishing moment did both. Nathan McSweeney flung his left hand at a thick edge and Marnus Labuschagne was alert enough to catch the ricochet in his right hand. Well, they say you should always use two hands.

Meantime, Bumrah and Reddy dumped sixes over third man – Reddy with the face of his bat and Bumrah with the back. These are reported here because they characterise a day on which anything might have happened and often did.

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Whatever smugness Australia may have felt to have India out so soon, they were quickly jolted out of it. Bumrah was as devastating as he was mesmerising.

McSweeney on debut fell to a lightning fast in-ducker. He looked like he had never seen anything like it before, and he probably hadn’t. That’s not because it’s unusual, it’s the Bumrah effect. It still confounds 50- and 100-Test batsmen.

Bumrah averages 20 in Test cricket, which is preternaturally far from average. The pre-series talk was all about Kohli and Pant, but if Australia does not find a way to read Bumrah, they will wear the dunce’s cap in this series.

Bumrah had Usman Khawaja caught at slip, and Steve Smith lbw first ball, and should have had Labuschagne second ball except that the besieged Kohli somehow managed to drop a ball he had already caught, confusing Bumrah and other teammates who took a while to grasp what Kohli had failed to grasp. It added to the day’s catalogue of weird and wonderful happenings.

So it was that two Australians had a bite each at the cherry and caught it, and one Indian had two bites and dropped it.

In lieu of Labuschagne’s wicket, Bumrah and associates made him dance like Raygun for 50 further excruciating balls before Mohammed Siraj claimed him anyway. He made 2.

Smith missed a screaming Bumrah off-cutter, also a latter-day commonplace. He looked aggrieved. Cricketers of the third age often think they’re suddenly getting all the good balls. The point is that they used to deal with them.

Once Bumrah had ripped Australia open, it was inevitable that the exposed middle order would sustain more damage. It has become a chronic problem. So quickly did Australia collapse here that at stumps, there was still shine on the ball. That becomes Saturday’s problem.

For a bad day, this was a good day. There was a crowd in Perth, which was exotic. The intrigue about this series intensified. Once, a day so hotly contested might have led to words between the teams. This day, there was hostility only in the attack and counter-attack. At one point, Marsh and Pant bumped elbows while grinning fraternally. The only edge in play was the outside, constantly.

Australians generally have taken a new-ball quality shine to Pant and Bumrah, Kohli too. In cricket’s new dispensation, hopefully it survives whatever comes next. The least we know is that it will come quickly. Supposedly, the pitch will speed up a bit on Saturday. Don’t dither at the pool or the beach.

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