After toiling badly for two sessions straight away, the Aussies managed to break the massive 170-run partnership between Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara after lunch on the second day of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). At the tea break, Indian added 346 runs on the board at a loss of 4 wickets with Ajinkya Rahane (30*) and Rohit Sharma (13*) at the crease.
The post-lunch session witnessed the dismissals of Kohli followed by Pujara.
A few overs after the beginning of the second session, Starc removed the Indian captain with one of his short of the length deliveries. Kohli got on top of it and played an uppercut but was caught by Aaron Finch at the deep third man area, ending up scoring 82 off 204 balls.
Four overs later, in the 126th, Pujara got a delivery from Pat Cummins (3/56) that kept a tad low and knocked back his stumps as India were suddenly reduced to 299/4.
Rahane then took charge of proceedings and played a breezy knock, not allowing the Australian attack to get on top.
In comparison, Rohit was more sedate and took his time at the crease, even as Tim Paine targeted him with some banter. There was not any major change in the pace of scoring though, with 36 runs coming in the first hour after lunch, and 33 runs in the second.
Earlier, Pujara scored his 17th hundred as India reached 277/2 at lunch. Starting from overnight 215/2, India looked ready for another hard day's grind, with Kohli reaching his 20th Test half-century, off 110 balls, in the very first over of the day.
The two batsmen scored quickly in the first hour and kept the scorecard ticking over, before Australia went back to their tactic of cutting runs.
Australia kept a tight leash on the scoring rate as 62 runs came from 28 overs in this morning session. Even so, they could not deny Pujara who reached his second hundred of this series off 280 balls just before to lunch.