India's run-making nearly all through day three was as smooth and delicious as ice-cream from a Mr Whippy van, and with a twirl on the end of each new scoop, too. You could just about hear Greensleeves tinkling away in the background.

The counterpoint was half an hour or so in the middle of this dreamy afternoon when the flow spluttered and spat and splattered, and another day might have stopped altogether. But Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, a majestic pair, soon were merrily pumping it out again in even more voluptuous piles, which not only squared this match, but was a mouth-watering augury of many Anglo-Indian matches to come.

Sachin who? Rahul who? Here they were reincarnate, with a bit of Virender Sehwag, too, for it is no longer enough merely to bat until the cows come home. These men lit up not only this day, but a way forward for India. Of Kohli's nine Test centuries, six have been made outside India, four of them now in Australia (and five against Australia).

The dapper and dashing Rahane's three centuries were compiled at Wellington, Lord's and the MCG, and there was his 96 also at Durban, all in the past 12 months.

Both are just 26, both entering their prime. All of the remade top order are contemporaries. As they grow and harden together, the frontiers will not hold the fears they did for previous generations. They have neither complexes nor inhibitions. On Sunday, Kohli and Rahane were not sweeping out of the Chennai dust or peppering short boundaries at Delhi, but were at the MCG, meeting fire with fire. There was pace and bounce, mother's milk to Australians, enough of each to account for Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay inside the first hour, enough still perhaps to play a part in the tepid-looking dismissal of MS Dhoni later in the day.

Kohli and Rahane welcomed it, worked with it, tamed it, turned it back on the Australians. For four hours, Australia searched for weaknesses, and found only strengths, on both sides of the wicket. The Indians' hallmark was their off-side driving, fit for any Sunday, but Rahane especially played the short ball as if insulted the Australians would bother to bowl at him that way. So was Mitch Johnson dispatched for 20 fours.

At 70, Rahane drove a return catch to Nathan Lyon, who dropped it, you suspect as much out of shock as misjudgment; nothing in two previous hours of flawless strokeplay had foreshadowed this. A few overs later, Australia took the new ball – or should that be cherry, to sit atop the ice-cream? – and really gave the vending machine a good kick.

Johnson upended Kohli with a throw at the stumps after fielding in his follow-through. The temperature light came on. To the next three balls, Kohli played swipes that were counter-intuitive of the assuredness of the rest of his strokeplay this day. Then he was reprieved twice in two Johnson overs, by hapless Shane Watson at first slip and when the running, diving Brad Haddin was a glove away from catching a miscued pull. By now, the ball was fairly whistling at the Indians, and the crowd was baying for their blood. Glares, stares and words were exchanged. Fuses glowed. The umpires stepped in to soothe, but had as much effect as little sisters.

But the afternoon was hot, the pitch begrudging to bowlers and, soon enough, the previous rhythm and hum returned. In contrast to the pattern in the series, and on Indian tours of Australia generally, the Indians prevailed at the pass. They had luck, but it was merely the dividend due to the bold. Neither by bluff nor bluster could Australia impose itself. As the crowd returned to their seats, their blood-curdling done, Rahane reached 100 and a little while later Kohli complimented him.

And they were only half done. If Australia thought they might catch the Indians resting on their laurels, Kohli and Rahane quickly disabused them. Thrice in three balls, Kohli pulled Johnson off his nose for fours. Not to be out done, Rahane took up a broadside position on the crease and belted three fours in Johnson's next over. There were no words now; what was there to say? Last summer's first banana was about as dangerous as low-fat yoghurt. The partnership grew to 262, and in barely four hours. This was batting on a rare plane.

At length, Rahane fell, and quickly three more, which showed only that batting this day was not as straightforward as he and Kohli had made it look. Kohli perished to the day's final ball, but not before one last crashing drive for four from Johnson, accompanied by an air kiss and a dismissive burst for the bowler at the media conference at stumps. Kohli is part yogi, part rogue, but undoubtedly this day was the cat who got the cream.