Captain Steven Smith continued his dream run by notching up his fourth century of the series as Australia piled up a mammoth 572 for seven declared to put themselves firmly in the driver's seat in the fourth and final cricket Test against India here today.
The young Australian captain, who has been in stupendous form, scored 117 to record his eighth Test ton and put Australia in a commanding position with useful contributions from Shane Watson (81), Shaun Marsh (73) and Joe Burns (58) on yet another disappointing day for the visitors.
In reply, India lost opener Murali Vijay for a nought only to recover and end the second day on 71 for one. The visitors trail by 501 runs with Lokesh Rahul (31 not out) and Rohit Sharma (40 not out) fighting on.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 348 for two, the hosts rode on a 196-run third wicket partnership between Smith and Watson to take the attack back to the opposition as Mohammed Shami picked up a five-wicket haul.
India though, ably led by Shami (5-112), seemed to have learnt their lessons from the opnening day to concede just 72 runs in 30 overs in the first session of play.
Two wickets fell in the morning session and Watson was the first to go when Shami struck for the second time in the innings to deny the No.3 batsman in what would have been a well-deserved hundred. He added only 20 runs to his overnight score.
Smith played a defiant knock to post his fourth ton in this series only to be caught behind off Umesh Yadav (1-137) in the 114th over of the innings. But the visitors were once again put to task in the post-lunch when Marsh and Burns managed a 114-run fifth wicket stand to pile on the misery for Virat Kohli and company.
Shami once again picked up the all-important wicket of Marsh, the only wicket for India in the post-lunch session, as the left-hander was caught behind after registering his third Test fifty.
Shami then came back all guns blazing in the final session to send back Burns after the youngster got his maiden Test fifty in just his second match.
Ryan Harris (25) then swung his bat around to hit five boundaries before becoming Shami's fifth strike of the innings.
The Indians, understandably, were more sedate in their reply after losing Vijay and Lokesh and Sharma stitched an unbeaten 71-run stand to raise hopes of revival come day three.
