A fantastic innings from captain Steve Smith has pushed Australia into a commanding position after day two of the third Test against India at the MCG.

Smith fell just short of his first Test double century, scoring 192 as Australia was bowled out for 530, before India recovered somewhat with the bat to close play at 1 for 108.

• Smith, the master batsman, to the rescue
• Aus v India: what we learned from Brisbane
• Smashing stuff: Aussies all out for 530 at the MCG

“I’m enjoying my batting at the moment and it’s going quite well,” Smith told Grandstand after play.

“To post 530 in the first innings is a good total for us, it would have been nice to take a few more wickets this evening.

“I think the boys bowled quite well so hopefully we can reap some rewards in the morning.”

The match was in the balance at the start of play, but by lunch Australia had snatched the momentum before running away with it with yet another flurry of tail-end runs.

Brad Haddin (55), Mitchell Johnson (28) and Ryan Harris (74) all ably supported their skipper through two sessions of aggressive batting and lacklustre bowling.

But the quality of the batting conditions were proven by India’s top three, who looked settled and composed in grafting their way to stumps with only Shikhar Dhawan (28) falling.

Murali Vijay (55) and Cheteshwar Pujara (25) survived to stumps, albeit with some fortune, with the latter dropped by Haddin in what should have been a regulation catch shortly before close of play.

Australia’s bowling performance failed to inspire, with Harris’s (1 for 19) tidy line and length the stand out as Johnson (0 for 24) and Josh Hazlewood (0 for 19) struggled for swing or movement off the pitch.

Brilliant Smith leads with aplomb

Australia’s new Test captain wasted no time in putting his mark on the team in Brisbane, but his batting performance on day two in Melbourne had fans in awe and dreaming of a future under the prodigious talent’s leadership.

Having put together a patient and composed 72 not out on day one, Smith immediately picked up the pace on Saturday and raced to his third consecutive century with a fine flick off his pads to the fence.

Smith played every shot in – and out – of the textbook for his 192, and fell agonisingly short of a maiden first-class double ton while trying an audacious ramp over the wicketkeeper’s head just before tea.

Threatening to steal the show at the other end, though, was the burly figure of Harris who also reached his highest Test score with an array of strokes in a demoralising few hours for India.

In what is becoming a habit for this Australian team, the runs added after the fifth wicket fell may decide the result of the Test with India seemingly switching off completely.

Australia more than doubled its overnight score in the space of only two sessions, enthralling the vocal crowd of more than 50,000.

Steady batting highlight of dismal day for India

India’s final session with the bat will be a source of hope for the visitors after an otherwise miserable day.

Haddin’s inexcusable drop saved Virat Kohli a nervous late session in front of Johnson, but Vijay and Pujara were otherwise rock solid while negotiating what threatened to be a dangerous period.

The rest of the day, though, was poorly handled by India. The persistence with a much-too-short length, the embarassing sledging of the same batsmen inflicting the punishment and captain MS Dhoni’s bizarely negative field settings left the tourists looking an aimless and helpless outfit.

All of the Australian wickets to fall came from edges behind, bowleds or LBWs, yet the most common delivery was a short ball hoping to get a batsman caught by a deep fielder on the leg side.

The saving grace will be that, for all but one horror collapse in Brisbane, the batsmen have performed well on this tour but with the lead still in excess of 400 runs, the first session of the third day’s play will be a crucial one.