Australia dominated the first day of the fifth and final Test against India in Sydney, bowling out the visitors for 185 to move ever closer to a series win.

Scott Boland took 4-31 – at one point even taking a hat-trick – as Australia, having lost the toss, took advantage of favorable bowling conditions on a green-coloured SCG pitch.

Despite a reshuffle in the batting order that saw captain Rohit Sharma sit out the final Test due to poor form, India were again poorly handled and failed to cross the 200 mark for the fifth time in the series.

Rishabh Pant’s 40 provided the only real resistance, but he and Nitish Kumar Reddy, who scored a maiden Test century in the fourth game in Melbourne, then went on to back-to-back Boland deliveries.

Stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah (1-7) at least provided a spark towards the end of the day, dismissing Usman Khawaja (2) – who was caught at slip – with the last ball of the evening to make up for his strange call on the evening bowling and continues his remarkable form for the series where he now has 31 wickets at an average of 12.64.

Australia – leading 2-1 and hoping to win back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in 10 years – ended the day 9-1 in the first innings, trailing 176.

While the bowlers dominated the early rallies of the Test, Mitchell Starc (3-49) provided the first breakthrough when KL Rahul (4) bowled a simple catch to Sam Konstas at square-leg in the fifth over of the morning.

Boland was then introduced into the attack and needed just four balls from Yashasvi Jaiswal (10) before the young opener slotted a ball through to debutant Beau Webster in the third over.

This brought Virat Kohli, the pantomime villain of the show, into the picture. Kohli was greeted with boos from many in the SCG crowd, a result of his intentionally shoulder-butting Konstas on the opening morning of the Boxing Day Test, for which he was later fined.

Fittingly, his first ball was the most dramatic of the session as Boland pulled the edge, with Steve Smith seemingly releasing a relay catch to Marnus Labuschagne in the slips, sparking wild celebrations – but the catch was overturned by third umpire Joel Wilson. Replays indicate the ball touched the grass as it came out of Smith’s hand.

As lunch approached, Nathan Lyon (1-19) lured Shubman Gill (20) into a push to Smith, meaning India ended the session at 57-3 in trouble, while Kohli (17) didn’t have much luck after the break, as this time there was no doubt about his lead from Boland all the way to Webster.

Pant, widely criticized after two loose dismissals in Melbourne, survived a missed chance on the 19th over against Webster but again played an ill-advised big shot to beat Boland and Reddy pushed the ball straight to Smith.

Boland couldn’t claim his hat-trick but Starc had Ravindra Jadeja (26) lbw soon after to continue India’s slide.

Pat Cummins (2-37) beat Washington Sundar (14) in a somewhat controversial decision by the third umpire who ruled that, despite inconclusive evidence, the ball had lightly touched the batsman’s glove on its way to Alex Carey.

Prasidh Krishna (3) became Starc’s third wicket when he holed out to Konstas in the deep and Bumrah (22) took a catch to Starc off Cummins to end the innings before striking late himself for India.

A win for Australia at the SCG would secure the team a place in the second consecutive World Test Championship final, where they would face South Africa at Lord’s in June.