Before a Boxing Day crowd of almost 70,000, Smith joined teammate David Warner in reaching 1,000 Test runs for the calendar year with his unbeaten 72.
At the close, Australia were 259-5 after winning the toss with Brad Haddin seeking a confidence-boosting innings on 23.
Smith passed 50 for the fourth time in five innings in this series, with an unconquered 162 in Adelaide and 133 in Brisbane among them. So far he has amassed 447 runs at 223.5 for the series.
Smith, who won his first Test as skipper in four days in Brisbane last weekend, was well positioned for his third ton of the series after Rogers and Watson missed out on cashing in on solid starts.
“It’s phenomenal to watch and great to be a part of. He is just growing day by day and it’s scary to think how good he can be,” said Rogers of Smith.
“Someone threw a ball back at him today and he had the confidence to say a few words back at him so it looks as if he knows he belongs and he knows he’s one of the better players in the world at the moment.”
Rogers hit his third straight half-century of the series and Watson made 52 in a 115-run stand before they were dismissed five minutes apart in the hour after lunch.
The pair had put on 59 runs off 131 balls for the fourth wicket.
Rogers, who scored 116 in last season’s corresponding Boxing Day Test against England, pushed at paceman Muhammad Shami and was snapped up behind by MS Dhoni for 57.
“I think three scores in the 50s is good in some respects but it’s also very disappointing,” said Rogers.
“As an opener you do the hard work and put yourself in a position where you can get a big score so to get out like that was disappointing because I felt good today, I felt my feet were going and I had a real desire to get a big score.”
Meanwhile, Shami and Umesh Yadav finished with two wickets each while Ravichandran Ashwin pick up a single wicket.
India made two changes from the team that lost the second Brisbane Test, with debutant Lokesh Rahul and Shami coming into the side.
Dhoni’s tourists trail 2-0 in the four-match series after defeats in Adelaide and Brisbane, and have not won at the MCG for 33 years.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2014.
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