MUMBAI — For forty-six overs, the Wankhede Stadium held its breath. India were chasing 290, the required rate was climbing, and Australia had squeezed the life out of the middle overs with a diet of cutters into the pitch. Then Rohit Sharma, who had been batting with the calm of a man reading a book in a quiet room, decided the maths no longer needed his attention.
The 46th over from Pat Cummins went for fourteen. A flick off the pads disappeared to the fine-leg boundary, a slower bouncer was pulled down to deep square, and suddenly the equation looked human again. When Ravindra Jadeja launched the first ball of the next over over long-on, the noise rolling around the old ground felt less like celebration and more like relief.
It was not a flawless innings. Rohit survived two reviews, was dropped at slip on 71, and spent long stretches knocking the ball into gaps for singles. But it was the innings the occasion demanded: patient while the target was distant, ruthless once it came into view.
Australia will point to the 14 wides and the two missed run-outs. Cummins will point to the death overs, where his bowlers lost their lengths at precisely the wrong moment. India will point to the scoreboard, which now reads 271 for 5 with twenty balls remaining and the series still alive.
The decider is not quite here yet, but the mood has shifted. Wankhede has seen this before. It knows what a Rohit Sharma finish sounds like.