In terms of drama at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Shakespeare could hardly have written it better on the first morning of the fifth Test between Australia and India.

The tourists were battling at 2-17 under grey skies when superstar batter Virat Kohli walked to the crease to a chorus of boos from the parochial Aussie crowd.

The Indians hoped he could be their saviour – as he had done countless times in the past – but were reduced to a stunned silence when his first delivery from Scott Boland smashed into the outside edge of his MRF bat.

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The ball rocketed low towards the slips cordon where Steve Smith somehow got low enough to get his right hand to it, scoop it up and flick it to Marnus Labuschagne to complete the catch.

The Aussies went berserk as they had just dismissed Kohli for a golden duck, but the umpire had to double check the catch with the third umpire.

Review umpire Joel Wilson had to roll the footage back and forward multiple times to determine whether Smith had kept the ball off the grass.

Ultimately he decided the ball had scraped the grass, and he denied the wicket.

Kohli survived but the Fox Cricket commentators were certainly not in agreeance with the decision.

“Australian fans will feel they’ve been robbed,” Isa Guha said.

Mark Waugh thought Smith’s finger remained under the ball as it scraped along the ground.

“It would’ve been a great catch … I think it was … he’s not happy,” Waugh said of Smith.

“You see his right finger just underneath it … I think he’s got away with one there Kohli.”

Former skipper Allan Border agreed it should have been out.

“Those ones looks so close, it’s hard to tell,” Border added.

India bemoaned several umpire decisions during the fourth Test in Melbourne, but this time it was on their side.

Aussie cricket great Justin Langer also believed it was out.

“From what I have seen there, that makes it more obvious to me that should have been out,” Langer said on Seven.

“Steve Smith had his fingers (underneath the ball), and you could see he was flicking the ball up, it was brilliant what he did.

“He had his fingers under the ball, he flicked it up deliberately and in my opinion that’s out.”