There's a photograph at the WACA museum of Geoff Marsh standing next to his bat, which happens to be perfectly vertical with, at first glance, nothing to support it. Then you see that it's stuck in a ridiculously wide crack on the pitch.
Cracks on pitches aren't just a Perth thing. They often turn up at other Australian venues too. Remember Sydney, January 2009? Remember Mitchell Johnson hitting one crack on day two and breaking Graeme Smith's hand, and hitting another on day five and bowling, through the gate, the very same Smith, now batting one-handed at No. 11 in a desperate attempt to save the match?
Indian pitches develop cracks too - the ones that are composed of black rather than red soil - but their effect, given the slowness of most of the surfaces, is dissimilar. Balls tend to hit them and keep low rather than rear up or jag sideways. The combination of fast pitches and cracks is almost uniquely Australian.
On Sunday, the second day of the Dharamsala Test, Josh Hazlewood hit a crack on the pitch. It didn't keep low. It veered away from M Vijay like a legcutter, beat his outside edge, and carried through to Matthew Wade at chest height.
Through the course of the day, Wade kept collecting balls from Hazlewood and Pat Cummins at chest, shoulder and head height. A small percentage of them hit the cracks - which weren't yet anything as wide as those on a classic WACA pitch - and the others pitched on unmarked areas of the pitch and carried through just as high. This wasn't one or two balls taking off. It was true bounce - another Australian characteristic.
This was the fourth and deciding Test of an Australian tour to India. By dint of exacting preparations on dusty turners and superlative execution of their plans on three very different but very Indian pitches, Australia had arrived in Dharamsala with the series 1-1. They were now in an entirely different setting in many ways, but one perhaps unexpected difference was how much like home it must have seemed.
This was Australia touring India, but it was a lot like India touring Australia.
In the first session of day one, India's fast bowlers, excited by the bounce and carry and swing, had been more erratic than at any previous point in the series. Then their two fingerspinners - ranked No. 1 and 2 in the world in Tests - had struggled to break through Australia's top order, and it had been left to their wristspinner to take four wickets and drag them back into the game. It's hard to come up with a more stereotypically Australian set of events.
Now here were two tall Australian quicks testing India's top order, not with reverse-swing or cutters on a stump-to-stump line but with bounce and movement in the corridor and the occasional bouncer. Bounce and movement in the corridor from Hazlewood eventually accounted for Vijay, a thin edge carrying through to the keeper.
When Cummins bowled, the bouncer wasn't just occasional - it was relentless and accurate, and KL Rahul, every five minutes or so, was swaying away from one in his elegant manner, eyes locked on the ball, or fending one past short leg in a far less assured way.
It was exhilarating to watch, and Rahul later spoke of enjoying the contest.
"Had to leave the balls outside off-stump, leave the bouncers - yeah, I was enjoying it," he said. "I haven't been challenged with swing and bounce [in this series]. It was good facing Josh and Cummins when they were bowling with a lot of heart."
It was eventually steep bounce that undid Rahul, who, on 60, tried to pull Cummins from over his right shoulder and toe-ended a catch to mid-off.
At tea, India were 153 for 2, and it seemed as if Australia may have erred in sticking to a combination of two seamers and two spinners rather than go for a 3-1 attack more in keeping with the conditions. The two spinners, Nathan Lyon and Steve O'Keefe, had done an excellent job in keeping India quiet - they had bowled 31 overs between them by then, conceding only 67 runs - but hadn't taken a wicket yet and didn't look like they were about to soon. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane had added 45 by then.
Six balls after tea, Lyon struck, and did so with flight, dip and bounce rather than exaggerated turn or natural variation off the surface. Pujara, pressing forward to defend, inside-edged onto pad, and into the hands of the diving short leg fielder.
Lyon, continuing to torment India with his Australian weapons of overspin, dip, and bounce, took three more wickets by stumps. Two were again the result of bounce and zip off the track, which gave the batsman no time to adjust - Karun Nair caught off a bat-pad sequence, Rahane caught at slip.
Then, at his end-of-day press conference, Lyon spoke about how much at home he had felt.
"After bowling a couple of overs on it before lunch, I sat down and thought about what [this pitch] is similar to, and it was closer to a home wicket where I can try and generate bounce, because bounce is my biggest weapon, where I am getting guys caught at bat-pad and slips.
"I went back to knowing how I bowl which is probably the best way I should bowl - just backing my skill and enjoying the challenge of playing the best side in the world in their home conditions."
In their home conditions? Not quite. This was India touring Australia within an Australian tour of India.