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Peter Handscomb was dismissed, optimistically cutting at a delivery that rose and followed him with a sudden violence.
Virat Kohli took an inspired catch at gully, setting off on a victory lap that allowed him to soak up the visiting fans' admiration but deprived him of the chance to tell Handscomb where to go.
Travis Head took strike tentatively, and was greeted by an uppercut from Umesh Yadav. He somehow managed to get glove and shoulder, rather than face, in the way of a climbing ball, directing it over the cordon and away to the rope. It was still rising as it eluded the fielder's grasp.
It was like this for much of day one in Perth. Exhilarating cricket of the sorts only recently seen in the TV archives or from the odd match in South Africa. A genuine contest between bat and ball that was brought to life by an untameable and completely unpredictable third element.
And to think we had all grown so distrusting of groundsmen, especially those from Perth.
Scorned too many times by hype of "WACA wickets of old", reports of a monster on the loose at the new stadium were greeted with scepticism. More often than not, those monsters have tended to have been of the Scooby Doo variety — scary on the outside, but really just some pasty middle-aged businessman behind the mask.
Even the Test-eve photos of an absolute goat track couldn't convince everyone. They'd mow it in the morning, we thought, and normal service would be resumed.
Photo:
Usman Khawaja had a really hard time of it at the crease on Friday. (AAP: Richard Wainwright)
It turns out, not so much. This thing has horns, and it's beautiful to see.
For those who have long been proclaiming Test cricket dead, poor pitches have been high on the list of suspected murderers. In the age of drop-ins, Test tracks in Australia have been one-size-fits-all affairs with less personality than your standard footy press conference.
So to see bowlers storming in, bashing lengths and provoking reflexive leaps from batsmen and wicketkeeper alike was the breath of fresh air that this 38-degree Perth day so badly needed.
That Australia could stare down the Green Mamba in the morning session and emerge unbitten was a credit to its openers, and a major boost in the national confidence for a new-look partnership that failed to inspire in Adelaide.
While Aaron Finch rode his luck and eventually — inevitably — fell to the full one angled in at his pads, Marcus Harris showed impressive control, proving our eyes weren't deceiving us when we saw something of merit in his Test debut.
Harris left the ball particularly well and snapped into his drives with authority. He celebrated his maiden half-century with a defiant pump of the fist and looked a good bet to go on with it.
But then, from nowhere, that pesky pitch played another of its little tricks. A harmless ball from part-time spinner Hanuma Vihari suddenly was heading for Harris's throat, and he could do little more than glove it to first slip.
All day, reports were coming from the players that every batsman felt like at some stage, a ball would "have their name on it". Eventually, through no fault of his own, this Vihari delivery quite clearly displayed Harris's.
The pitch got more electric as the day wore on, with the extreme heat serving to both bake the pitch and scare off the punters.
The odd moments of surface-related horror started to become more frequent — a ball that would defy the odds and keep low, one that would ping in to the body, and even one from Umesh Yadav that flew so high, it could have been bowled to Harris on Mitchell Starc's shoulders and still been a wide — but it was that randomness that made the day captivating.
It gave bowlers a reason to push through fatigue and made the spells of Australian dominance — especially the late partnership between Shaun Marsh and Head — feel even more significant.
Batsmen played cross-bat shots with conviction, in the hope that even erroneous strokes would fly high and fast away from fielders. Jasprit Bumrah worked Usman Khawaja over until he was dizzy, before allowing Yadav the spoils of his wicket.
The runs ticked over, the wickets never felt far away. Australia has talked for years about "good, hard cricket" without elaborating. Perhaps this is what they had in mind.
The only shame of the day was that only about 20,000 people came to see it. Granted it was a Friday and hot enough to have all but the most fanatical pocket of Indian fans running for the shaded areas, but for the first day of the first Test at a stadium that has become the pride of the city, there was no real way to sugar-coat a disappointing attendance.
The good news is today is Saturday. Apparently it's going to be a fair bit cooler than yesterday. And this pitch, warts and all, is going to have everyone jumping again.
Topics: cricket, sport, perth-6000, wa, australia