Sachin Tendulkar has been denied his fairytale 100th international century as Australia continued to march towards a 4-0 series whitewash of India at stumps on day four of the fourth Test at Adelaide Oval.
Set a record 500 fourth-innings run chase to conjure a miracle victory, India are still 333 runs in arrears with just four wickets in hand after stumbling to 6-166, with Tendulkar departing for 13 in what was almost certainly his final Test knock on Australian soil.
VVS Laxman and Virat Kohli batted patiently for most of the session and looked like surviving until the close of play, but they both lost their wickets within 10 balls of each other inside the last 10 minutes of the day's play, making Australia's job tomorrow a lot easier than they would have anticipated.
Laxman was dropped by Ricky Ponting at a wide second slip on 25 when he played a loose drive against Ryan Harris, but his watchful vigil ended on 35 after he whipped a short Nathan Lyon offering right off the meat of the bat to Shaun Marsh, who snapped up a very sharp chance at short mid-wicket.
The great Laxman has possibly played his final Test innings.
Then on the final ball of the day's penultimate over, first innings centurion Kohli (22) was brilliantly run out by his day-three sparring partner Ben Hilfenhaus, whose off-balance ping at the non-striker's end from mid-wicket was a direct hit, with a diving Kohli short of his ground after he scurried desperately for a single to keep the strike.
Lyon (3-57), who sent India acting captain Virender Sehwag (62) on his way shortly before tea with a rank full toss, was the man who broke India's hearts when he got rid of Tendulkar with a nice looping ball which the Little Master prodded forward defensively against.
The ball deflected from Tendulkar's glove onto his pad and bobbed up for a sitter to Ed Cowan at short leg.
The great Tendulkar was surprisingly passive and tentative against Lyon throughout his short innings and paid the ultimate price before trudging off to a standing ovation from the appreciative Adelaide crowd.
It also left Tendulkar without a ton for the series, the first time in five Test tours of Australia over two decades that he has failed to score a century.
It is the first time in Tendulkar's decorated career that he has failed to score a century on an Australian Test tour.
Nightwatchman Ishant Sharma came out in the third last over of the evening and was immediately greeted by an ultra-attacking field with every single Aussie fielder in catching positions around the bat, Lyon bowling with his tail up.
Kohli's endeavours to protect Sharma brought about the downfall of the exciting Indian No. 6.
With an Indian victory long out of the question, India's faint hopes to even escape with a draw rested with Laxman and Kohli, but a crazy final 10 minutes put an end to such dreams.
Indian legends Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, with almost 29,000 runs and 87 tons between them from a combined 352 Tests, were initially armed with that responsibility but their watchful union ended when out-of-touch Dravid (25) thick-edged a widish Ryan Harris ball to Mike Hussey at gully.
Tendulkar fell three overs later as Lyon bowled his best spell of the series, trundling in for 13 overs unchanged from the River End.
Before lunch, India lost openers Gautam Gambhir (three) and Sehwag (62) to be 2-92 at tea.
Sehwag's blazing knock included a mix of the sublime and the ridiculous, but it was never boring.
His 50 arrived off just 36 balls and included 11 boundaries (or 88 percent of his total score).
When he reached his half century, the audacious opener had scored more than 80 percent of India's runs.
Just when he looked set to finally nail a big one, Sehwag threw his wicket away recklessly on 62 when he danced down the pitch to Lyon who induced a leading edge on one that Sehwag tried to smash into the carpark.
The shot ended Sehwag's exciting 53-ball knock, which included 12 fours - all scored on the off-side - as Ponting comfortably claimed the skied ball at short cover
He was looming as the danger-man to Michael Clarke's side after the Aussie skipper declared the home side's innings at 5-167 with Ponting again top-scoring, unbeaten on 60.
Clarke made 37, concluding a golden series with the bat in which he amassed 626 runs at 125.20 with a strike rate of 69.86, while Ponting's series reaped 544 runs at 108.80.