To get a gauge of how much Australia’s remarkable 333-run win on Indian soil meant to the players, you only had to listen to captain Steve Smith after the first Test in Pune.

“We haven’t won a game here for 4502 days,” Smith said.

Not since 2004, when the likes of Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne led a team that won by an almost identical margin in Nagpur.

And yet none of those greats produced a performance anywhere near that of the 32-year-old left-arm tweaker playing in just his fifth Test here, his first in India.

Steve O’Keefe matched his first-innings haul of 6/35 to finish the match with a staggering 12/70, the tenth best match figures ever produced by an Australian, and the best against India.

They also comfortably eclipse Warne’s best Test figures of 12-128.

On a crumbling pitch that Smith said ”actually played into our hands”, O’Keefe variously spun the ball prodigiously and slid straight deliveries through defences.

https://twitter.com/MitchJohnson398/status/835398440632762369

This plan was most brilliantly executed to remove India’s captain Virat Kohli, with the superstar shouldering arms to a delivery that went straight on and into off stump.

“I love SOK’s willingness to learn and try different things and adapt to different conditions,” Smith said.

Incredible Aussie performance in Pune. So happy for Steve O'Keefe!He has toiled so hard for this👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻. @stevesmith49 amazing 100 too.

— Shane Watson (@ShaneRWatson33) February 25, 2017

O’Keefe and fellow spinner Nathan Lyon (4/53) bundled out the home team for 107 in the second innings. Added to the host nation’s 105 in the first dig, it made for an aggregate of 212, its lowest in a home Test.

Earlier Smith had posted his 10th – and arguably most important – Test ton as captain to put Australia in such a commanding position.

Smith scored 109 as Australia reached 285 in the second innings, setting India an imposing target of 441 to win.

That figure meant that Virat Kohli’s men needed to break the record for the highest successful chase in Test history.

That 💯 from @stevesmith49 has to go down as one of the greatest of all time … not many people have scored tons on a beach against Ashwin !

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 25, 2017

The 27-year-old Smith’s century was his 18th Test ton but his first on Indian soil. He also became the first batsman to score five centuries in a row in Tests against India.

Given the treacherous and crumbling pitch and the quality of India’s spin-bowling attack, the knock will go down as one of the best of his 51-Test career.

He batted with his instinctively positive approach, coming out of the crease to the slow bowlers and and scoring freely on both sides of the wicket.

Australian captain Steve Smith celebrates after reaching his century.

India had its chances to remove him, but missed four catches offered by the Australian skipper. The dropped chances came when he was on 23, 29, 37 and 67.

Jayant Yadav missed a chance to run the skipper out on 60, and when he was on 73 Ravindra Jadeja had a confident lbw shout turned down. Ball-tracking replays confirmed he would have been out on review but a clearly agitated Kohli had already unsuccessfully used both available referrals.

“You need a bit of luck on a wicket like that,” Smith said. “I was pleased with myself to score a second-innings hundred here in India and formulate some different plans to how I normally play, problem-solve on the spot.”

Steve Smith vs India in Tests

92, 5, 46, 18, 162*, 52*, 133, 28, 192, 14, 117, 71, 27, 109

Scored Century in his Last five Tests vs India!

— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) February 25, 2017

Smith began the day on 59, with Australia on 4/143, but suffered an early setback when Mitch Marsh added only 10 to his overnight total before edging a Ravindra Jadeja delivery to the wicketkeeper.

The lower-order backed up their skipper, though, with wicketkeeper Matthew Wade (20) sharing a 42-run partnership and Mitch Starc thumping 30 off 31 balls.

Smith was delighted that his team had kept it’s foot on India’s throat in this match.

“The pressure was off us. Everyone wrote us off and expected India to win 4-0,” he said. “That can’t happen any more.”

Struggling to hide his disbelief, Kohli said his team needed “to accept we batted badly and we need to improve. If you drop five catches off one batsman … and you lose seven wickets for 11 runs, you don’t deserve to win.”

“If you don’t apply yourself, any bowling attack can look dangerous,” Kohli quipped, when asked about O’Keefe’s 12-wicket match haul.

“It’s as simple as that. Even a part-timer can get four wickets if you don’t apply yourself.

“How badly we batted in the first innings is the main reason why couldn’t get back into the game. We put ourselves under a lot of pressure.”

– with AAP