In an hour, Steve Smith ignited the fourth Test.

The contest at the Sydney Cricket Ground had been attritional, and often dull, for the first three days.

But both sides have played with a good spirit and Smith’s 71 at run-a-ball clip in the final session, supported by ingenuity from Chris Rogers and power-hitting from Joe Burns, has set up a great finish tomorrow.

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With the series already won and the pitch wearing and playing some tricks, an overnight declaration should be possible. The Australians bolted to 6/251 in next to no time, leading by 348 runs.

Smith is just a handful of matches into his captaincy but already he has assumed an enormous countenance in the Australian game.

Joe Burns cracked 66 off 39 balls. Photo: Getty

Australia led by just 97 runs on first innings by the time Smith’s team extracted the 10 Indian wickets on the dry Sydney pitch. That was just before tea on the fourth day, and any quick calculation showed that only a flurry of scoring would give Australia a chance to set up for a declaration.

Enter Smith, who made light of the excellence of Ravi Ashwin, turning the ball sharply from the off. Once cover driven six will live in the memory; he is in amazing form.

We don’t even know yet whether his position as captain is for the long-term, given that Michael Clarke is rehabilitating from his back injury and expecting to return soon, possibly for the World Cup. Yet already, he seems self-assured and utterly comfortable as captain of his country, so much so that it would almost seem unfair to remove him from the position either for the World Cup or the tour of the West Indies.

Doubtless Clarke will resume the captaincy if he is available, for the protocol will demand it. He has done nothing to be sacked as captain. But at least we all know what the succession plan looks like, unequivocally so.

Smith began this Test match in his hometown with a magnificent century. For all the world he looked like he could make 300, such was his presence at the crease against a poor Indian bowling attack.

But on day three it turned for him. KL Rahul skied a pull shot over the slips cordon and Smith, running back, could not hold the catch. He blamed ‘Spidercam’, Channel Nine’s overhead camera which runs on wires attached to the top of the grandstands. He should have caught it, and it hurt. Rahul, 45 at the time, went on to post a century.

He also dropped Virat Kohli, India’s skipper, at second slip when he was 54. Kohli made almost 100 more beyond that, so the significance would not be lost. Smith had to go high but he should have taken the catch.

Fast forward to today and it is hard work for the Australian skipper. A victory came early when a plan to have Kohli scoop a catch on the slow pitch worked perfectly. Chris Rogers took the catch, posted at short mid-wicket. It was triumph for Smith, Darren Lehmann and the coaching staff who plot hitting areas for certain players on their computers.

Shane Watson is bowled by Ravi Ashwin for 16. Photo: Getty

But Ravi Ashwin came in and started squirting balls down through the slips cordon. Smith had just two slip fieldsman in place, and Shane Warne, on Channel Nine’s coverage, kept bleating about the need for another man in the cordon. Smith was unmoved.

Burns had a howler when he dropped Bhuvneshwar Kumar at bat-pad that symolised Australia’s troubles. Burns, in just his second Test, has taken over from Rogers in that specialist position, but he is on his heels and does not look comfortable. When Kumar spooned the catch from Nathan Lyon’s bowling, he panicked and ended up sprawled on the deck without the ball. Again, it was costly and Smith grew frustrated.

But the day was far from done. India used Ashwin with the new ball, astutely, and he quickly knocked over David Warner. Then Smith exploded and he was followed by Burns, who played an astonishing, short innings in further evidence that he has a great future.

The Australians all joined the party, scoring at more than six runs an over. The Test match has wandered along aimlessly for long stretches, and Tom Parker’s pitch has been roundly criticised for being too flat. But ultimately, we might be headed for a cracker of a contest.