The yawning disparity between the world's top and fifth-ranked Test teams has rarely seemed wider than it gaped at the SCG today, as India's dominance of Australia threatened to descend into mockery.

With a batting line-up so omnipotent, on a pitch so accommodating, against a bowling outfit so dispirited, India's first innings halted at 622 only because their captain Virat Kohli had tired of toying with his rivals and wanted a brief flurry with the ball.

And while Australia's physically and mentally exhausted charges might have made it to stumps 0-24 – albeit after opener Usman Khawaja was dropped behind the wicket on nought – the task awaiting over coming days is scarcely any less daunting.

Especially given they remain almost 600 runs in arrears, and that only one member of their specialist batting group (Travis Head) has posted a score in excess of 70 in this series.

While the foundation for India's second-highest total in Australia (after their 7dec-705 in Sydney 15 years ago) was dutifully laid by the unflinching Cheteshwar Pujara, the flourish came from unconventional keeper Rishabh Pant.

The livewire 21-year-old became the first India gloveman to score a Test century in Australia and was part of the highest seventh-wicket stand (204 with Ravindra Jadeja) produced on Australian soil.

An effort that came against a demoralised opposition forced to send down 167.2 overs having bowled 169.4 in Melbourne last week – the first time Australia has found the third new-ball available in consecutive Tests since the fabled Kolkata and Chennai matches of their 2001 tour of India.

The final Test of this four-game Domain Series had begun as one that India – by dint of their unassailable 2-1 lead – did not necessarily need to win.

Over the course of two remorselessly dominant days, it has evolved into one they surely cannot lose.

If Australia were to find a way back into this Test, and an outside chance of levelling the series then early wickets with a new(ish) ball this morning seemed the only viable route.

It was also going to take more than a measure of fortune, and that materialised within the first hour when India allrounder Hanuma Vihari was dismissed by Lyon for a patient 42.

So convinced was Vihari that the sweep shot – judged by umpire Ian Gould to have elicited a catch at short-leg – had rebounded directly from his left bicep that he invoked the review mechanism as Gould's finger was being raised.

But despite visual evidence suggesting Vihari's case was solid, the appearance of a slight spike on the 'snickometer' soundtrack as ball passed bat convinced third umpire Marais Erasmus there was sufficient corroboration to uphold the on-field decision.

It meant that, after 102 overs of mostly thankless slog, Australia had claimed the top half of India's batting.

But if they thought that would hasten the innings' end, they were soon shown to be sadly misled.

Pant showed that his talent extends well beyond stump-side banter and social media memes by harnessing the impetuosity that has cost his wicket in previous Tests to pile further pain upon Australia's compounding misery.

The lithe left-hander, whose repertoire of gymnastic tricks is almost as compelling as his cricket, survived an appeal for a catch behind off Lyon when he had scored eight, a shout that was shown to be erroneous upon Australia's decision to review.

From then on, the 21-year-old provided an exclamation point to a series in which he had already announced himself as one of the most precocious young entertainers in world cricket.

That quest was helped in no small part by the steadying influence of Pujara who counselled his headstrong young batting partner whenever Pant seemed likely to succumb to impetuosity.

Such as the lofted drive that almost landed in the hands of Josh Hazlewood at long-on, and would have seen the keeper-batsman once again throw away a potential score of substance.

Instead, he heeded his senior teammate's words and kept the ball largely along the ground from the moment of that near miss.

He also resisted the temptation to urge greater vigilance from Pujara when he produced a couple of rare lapses, as his knock approached its ninth hour.

The first misstep came when Pujara was deceived by a slower ball from Hazlewood that he scooped into fortuitously vacant space beyond point, and the next an hour later when he offered a sharp chance to slip that Usman Khawaja almost miraculously plucked.

They were clear and justifiable signs that, after almost a day and a half of heat, body blows and inscrutable concentration, the 30-year-old was showing signs of fatigue.

Which also offered reassuring proof that – despite his batting heroics over the past month – he is but human.

His dismissal smacked of weariness – his attempt to advance against Lyon bringing a misjudgement in flight and a straight drive bearing a fraction too much bottom hand and a low return catch that was accepted by Lyon.

It would prove the final moment of faux celebration that Australia was granted for the next three hours as Pant and flamboyant spinner Ravi Jadeja ran amok.

Pant's century arrived shortly after tea, when he seized upon a generous half-volley from leg-spinner Marnus Labuschagne and slapped it to the mid-wicket boundary as India's total surged past 500.

It represented the second Test hundred the 21-year-old has posted since taking the keeping gloves from the more polished (but less productive with the bat) Wriddhiman Saha during India's tour to the UK last year.

Once he had crested the milestone and the need to show restraint in the company of specialist batter Pujara had passed, Pant unleashed his full array of party tricks against an Australia attack rendered hapless by the benign pitch and abject exhaustion.

Pant and Jadeja drove their opponents into the dust with an unprecedented seventh-wicket partnership of 204 from just 224 balls faced, a scoring rate only hastened by the arrival of the third new ball in the final session.

Pant unfurled some jaw-dropping stroke play, none more audacious than the Hazlewood yorker that he somehow sent scorching through square leg for one of the 15 boundaries (supplemented by a six) in his unbeaten 159.

Jadeja also looked likely to post a ton, which would have completed the humiliation heaped upon their hosts who have yet to produce a century maker in this series whilst India were on course to rack them up among their lower-order.

However, having celebrated his 50 with a trademark exhibition of swordsmanship, Jadeja charged at Lyon in an attempt to belt him beyond the Brewongle Stand and had his stumps rattled, at which point Kohli decided he'd seen enough.

From his batters, at least.