India 252 for 9 (Rahul 84, Jadeja 77, Cummins 4-80, Starc 3-83) trail Australia by 193 runs

It was Akash who moved India past the follow-on mark, slashing Cummins over a leaping gully fielder. Two balls later, he cleared his front leg and launched him for a massive six over wide long-on. That was the last scoring shot of the day with the umpires calling the players off the field for bad light after one more ball.

It was another stop-start day at the Gabba, though not to the extent that it was on day three, and if it helped Australia's depleted attack stave off exhaustion, it also ate away more time from the match. Only 57.5 overs were possible through the day.

By the end of it, Australia were left ruing events at its very beginning. Cummins got the first ball of the day to rear at Rahul in the corridor, and he fended it straight to Steven Smith at second slip. Smith is one of the world's great slip fielders - he went on to demonstrate this later in the day - but this time the ball simply bounced off the heels of his hands.

Cummins struck soon after, removing Rohit Sharma with a terrific one-two. First, he zipped a short ball past his ribcage, not allowing him to connect with a pull. Then he shifted the ball full and outside off stump. Rohit didn't get far enough forward to play this ball safely - and with his front shoulder too open - and ended up edging his attempted drive to the keeper.

India were 74 for 4 at this stage, and had only faced 23.3 overs. Jadeja's entry, however, calmed them down, and he settled into an innings where his control percentage hovered in the mid-90s throughout. It helped that Hazlewood went off the field soon after Jadeja walked in, after bowling just one over, and it helped that the ball stopped seaming and bouncing quite as awkwardly as it had done when it was new, but Jadeja batted with an organised gameplan that ensured he made the best of his circumstances.

His wagon wheel against the fast bowlers gave a clear idea of it: plenty of checked drives down the ground with a vertical bat and a full face, plenty of flicks off his legs, but hardly anything through the covers with an angled bat. He also faced a lot of bowling from Lyon, so often his nemesis back home, but where Jadeja's method of defending with bat and pad close together makes him an lbw candidate on Indian pitches, it was far less of an issue on this bouncy Gabba surface. He also brought out the sweep, a shot he isn't known for, and picked up two fours and three singles with it.

With Rahul looking increasingly solid at the other end and putting away a number of sweet off-side drives, India began to carve chunks out of their deficit. Then Smith made up spectacularly for his earlier error, stepping to his right in anticipation as Rahul shaped for the back-cut off Lyon, and dived to his right to grab the thick edge one-handed. Jadeja and Rahul had put on 67.

It brought together India's allrounders with 105 still needed to avoid the follow-on. The selection of both Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy may have left India's bowling lacking depth, and may have contributed to their concession of 445. Now, though, it gave them the batting to try and save this Test match. Reddy continued his impressive showing in this series, this time when he was asked not to counterattack but bat normally and show the defensive side of his game. The seventh-wicket pair put on 53, before Cummins struck with a nearly 60-over-old ball, getting his Sunrisers Hyderabad team-mate Reddy to inside-edge onto his stumps.

India now needed 55 with three wickets remaining, and it soon became 33 with one wicket remaining as Starc and Cummins, running on fumes, took out Mohammed Siraj and Jadeja, the latter bounced out cleverly while trying to farm the strike. Australia were nearly there, but, as Bumrah and Akash Deep proved, not quite.