Two eerily similar circumstances, two vastly different responses, two record-setting fifties - Tahlia McGrath is having an outing to remember in India. With the bat at least anyway.

With Beth Mooney's brain-fade and Phoebe Litchfield's unnecessary reverse-sweep, Australia were two-down early in the second innings as well - only this time with 131 runs in the arrears and on a track that had dark rough patches to keep Indian spinners in play for most of Day 3 in the Wankhede Test. If they didn't want an extra day off ahead of Christmas, the tourists needed to apply themselves for the better part of the remaining five sessions and change.

McGrath, who not long ago strode out all guns blazing and launched a flurry of boundaries against India's new-ball pair in the first innings, was now prepared to tone down the aggressor in her, and dig deep. The signs of that adaptability were visible from the first ball she faced, and defended back to the very bowler