If you took everything we have seen at the SCG since the toss on Friday morning and extended it over five days, granting it the usual cadence of a Test match, it would be among the most thrilling we’ve seen.

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The senses have been overloaded in Sydney, with a week’s worth of high drama compressed and cramped into a weekend-long bender that is rapidly careening towards a finale.

In just two days of cricket we have been bombarded with events. Every half an hour has created a new hero and presented a fresh villain, twisted and turned beyond all recognition and left us all in an exhausted state of bewilderment, unsure which way is up.

All we can say with confidence is the end is coming soon, faster than we anticipated. Australia or India is about to win this Test match and secure the Border-Gavaskar trophy, probably as soon as day three.

A game already being played at 1.5x speed was pushed into overdrive after the tea break by India, and especially by Rishabh Pant, who played one of the most extraordinary innings the SCG has ever seen.

But that didn’t come until well after Australia had been blown away in the morning, bailed out by Beau Webster’s impressive 57 on debut, and then put away again while still in deficit.

It came after Sam Konstas ramped Jasprit Bumrah again, but was out not long after. After Scott Boland had produced yet another special spell to remove both India’s openers, and after Virat Kohli’s last ever Australian innings came to a close.

And perhaps most importantly, it came after Bumrah had left the field and then the ground for a trip to the hospital for reasons unknown, but presumed significant.

It felt at that stage, not long after lunch and during a brief period of batting stability, that Bumrah’s daytrip would be the story of the day. Perhaps it still is, though we won’t know more until the BCCI gives us clarity as to what the issue was or still is.

Bumrah’s absence, should the injury be significant enough to take him out of the game entirely, changes the whole colour of the contest. What a boost for Australia, what a blow for India.

What the Bumrah news did was pull all of us out of the present and began pitching minds forward to the inevitable fourth-innings run chase — how many can Australia get if Bumrah is bowling, and how many can it get if he is not? 

But in that split second of wandering minds, the game had already changed again. Australia lost its last four wickets for just 19 runs and suddenly hopes of a first-innings lead had been dashed.

The actual game itself had been briefly swallowed up by the sideshows — the Konstas battle at the start of the day, the Webster rearguard and then the Bumrah bombshell — but when it re-emerged to the front of mind Australia was suddenly in all sorts of strife.

India sensed opportunity and attacked.

Yashasvi Jaiswal belted the first Mitchell Starc over of the innings for 16 runs, attacking some loose deliveries with total conviction. It was a statement from the young man, and it took the lead to 20 before half the ground was back from the tea-time beer line.

It was at that point where it crystallised that the match and the series was being fought for in this very session, late on day two of this Test match.

India was going to throw everything at building a match-winning lead in the here and now, and there was every chance Australia was going to either run through them or be blown away completely. Either way, it was going to happen quickly.

All the chips were pushed in, and away we went.

Jaiswal and KL Rahul had smacked India to 0-42 at a run a ball before Boland intervened with two of the most glorious balls of the summer. A set of bails must hate seeing that man coming.

Those two dismissals threw India abruptly onto the back foot and brought Virat Kohli to the crease, carrying with him all the main character energy of a man who had played this innings in his mind a hundred times.

In his final knock in Australia he was going to silence all the doubters and lead his country to a famous win, etching his name in folklore and ensuring Virat’s Test was spoken about forever and a day.

And then Boland sent him one on a fifth stump line and he nicked it.

This series has been a disappointing one for Kohli but his standing in the game and the memory of the summers he came down under and toyed with the Australians can’t be diminished. The standing ovation the crowd afforded him reflected that fact.

Kohli’s involvement in this match isn’t over — just imagine how, for lack of a better word, spirited his celebrations will be in the fourth innings — but his batting contributions are.

With a furious roar this champion cricketer had to accept defeat, to Boland, to Australia and to one technical flaw he simply could not overcome.

Enter Pant.

Only 24 hours earlier he cut a conflicted figure, unsure of how much of his natural instincts he should be trusting as the external criticism came thick and fast. But on Saturday, Rishabh Pant doubled down on being Rishabh Pant with quite spectacular results.

He charged at Boland and hit his first ball for six over long-on, before trying a switch-hit ramp soon after and ending up flat on his back. His battle plan laid clearly out for all to see, Pant began swinging wildly at everything he looked at.

But as the field spread and the ball began to find the middle of the bat, the shots became less haphazard and more controlled. They also started flying further back into the crowd.

Pant reached his 50 in just 29 balls and in the process changed the game. A fourth-innings chase of even the slightest substance on this pitch looms as a challenge, and in less than an hour Rishabh made sure Australian sweat would be required if it was to secure the victory.

He was out 40 minutes before stumps and breaths were taken all around the ground. India lost its sixth wicket and should have offered up a seventh had Steve Smith, in the penultimate over of the day, not made his late play for catch of the summer and let Usman Khawaja take a simple catch at first slip.

Ravindra Jadeja survived that moment, one that may be looked at as decisive should day three go against the Australians.

But you could say that about nearly everything that happened on a most spellbinding day of Test cricket. Emerging out the other side of that blur, dishevelled and disbelieving, we are at last on the cusp of a conclusion.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be lifted on Sunday in Sydney. Who will do the lifting is still anyone’s guess.