Australia's Mitchell Starc (front centre) turns to see a ball run away that he dove in an attempt to stop on the second day of the cricket Test match against India in Sydney, yesterday. At stumps, India are 1 for 71 in reply to Australia's 7 for 572 declared in their first innings.

SYDNEY, AP:

Steve Smith joined some illustrious company with his fourth century in as many tests, steering Australia into a commanding position yesterday in the fourth Test against India. Smith scored 117 and shared a 196-run stand with Shane Watson (81), and all of Australia's top six batsmen surpassed 50 runs in the same Test innings for the first time, lifting the total to 572-7 before declaring after tea on day two at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

India lost a wicket before scoring a run, in reply, Mitchell Starc having Murali Vijay caught behind with the third ball, before Rohit Sharma (40 not out) and Lokesh Rahul (31 not out) combined to steady the innings and reach 71-1 at stumps.

Bat has dominated ball in all six sessions so far, with 25-year-old Smith exploiting the conditions again.

He levelled the marks of Australian legend Don Bradman (vs South Africa in 1931-32) and South Africa great Jacques Kallis (vs West Indies in 2003-04) in scoring four hundreds in four consecutive tests of a series.

Smith, promoted to the test captaincy because of Michael Clarke's latest recurrence of back and hamstring trouble, was eventually caught behind off Umesh Yadva's bowling with the Australian total at 400. He leads the scoring this series with 698 runs at an average of 139.6.

Only Bradman (715 runs in 1947-48) and Ricky Ponting (706 runs in 2003-04) have scored more runs in a series between Australia and India.

With David Warner (101) and Chris Rogers (95) sharing a 200-run stand on the opening day, followed by Smith and Watson, Shaun Marsh (73) and Joe Burns (58) completed the set for Australia's specialist batsmen with half centuries.

Australia has an unassailable 2-0 series lead, and regained the Border-Gavaskar trophy with two wins and a draw in the first three Tests.