Steve Smith led the way with another good knock as Australia raced to 251 for 6 and a lead of 348 over India before rain stopped play at the end of the fourth day in the fourth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
Earlier, looking to wrap up the four-match series 3-0, the hosts dismissed India for 475 shortly before tea to take a 97-run first innings lead and then embarked on a fierce assault on the Indian bowlers in a bid to force a result.
A look at some statistical highlights from the day’s play.
Australia registered a run-rate of 6.27 while batting in their second innings - the second highest when 240 balls or more have been faced - the highest is 6.80 by South Africa during their total of 340 for three wickets declared against Zimbabwe at Cape Town in March 2005.
# Umesh Yadav registered a run-rate of 4.66 in the series - the worst by an Indian bowler (minimum 600 balls). The said run-rate is the third worst in a Test series behind West Indian Fidel Edwards's 4.81 vs South Africa in 2003-04 and Australia's Brett Lee's 4.72 vs India in 2003-04.
# Brad Haddin became the fourth Australian wicketkeeper and eighth in Tests to complete 250 catches or more.
# Joe Burns (66) posted his highest Test score, bettering the 58 in the first innings of the Sydney Test. These two innings are his only half-centuries in Tests.
# Burns's outstanding strike rate of 169.23 is the highest by an Australian player in a Test innings against India and second highest behind Adam Gilchrist's 172.88 during his unbeaten innings of 102 off 59 balls vs England at Perth in 2006-07. (minimum 50).
# For the first time in a Test series, eight totals of 400 or more were posted. Also for the first time both teams registered 400 runs or more in their first innings in each game in a four-Test rubber.
# Ravichandran Ashwin's excellent figures of 4 for 105 are his best in a Test innings in Australia, surpassing the 3 for 81 at Melbourne in December 2011.
# He has 50 wickets (ave. of 34.64) in ten Tests vs Australia, and is the eighth Indian bowler to complete 50 wickets or more against Australia. Anil Kumble, with 111 wickets at 30.32 runs apiece in 20 Tests, heads the charts.
# Ashwin is the ninth Indian Test all-rounder to complete the double of 1000 runs or more and 100 wickets or more in Tests - his stats being 1006 (ave.37.25) runs and 119 (ave.30.67) wickets in 24 Tests.
# His fantastic performance of reaching the all-round feat in 24 Tests is the third quickest in the history of Test cricket behind Ian Botham (21) and Vinoo Mankad (23).
# In the last 23 years, he is the second Indian spinner after Anil Kumble to claim four wickets in an innings in Australia.
# He recorded four half-centuries in Tests – two each vs Australia and England.
Chris Rogers has posted six consecutive innings of 50 or more in Tests: 55 & 55 at Brisbane, 57 & 69 at Melbourne and 95 & 56 at Sydney, emulating an Australian record for most successive half-centuries in Tests, held by Jack Ryder, Doug Walters, Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques and David Warner.
# Steven Smith amassed 769 runs at an average of 128.16 - the highest by a player in a four-Test series – the third highest by any player in four Tests in a series behind Vivian Richards (829 at an average of 118.42 in four Tests vs England in 1976 (he did not play in the Lord's Test) and Sunil Gavaskar (774 runs at an average of 154.80 in four Tests vs West Indies in 1970-71, having made his Test debut in the second Test at Port of Spain).
# Smith's aggregate is now the highest by any batsman in a Test series between India and Australia, outstripping Don Bradman's 715 (ave.178.75) in five Tests in 1947-48.
# In the current rubber, the bowlers have conceded 100 runs or more 24 times - the most instances of this unwanted feat in a Test series, bettering the 23 in Australia-England series of 1924-25.
