Daylight between Steven Smith and the rest

On 98, Steven Smith surveyed the field Virat Kohli and Umesh Yadav had offered him. It was a 6-3, with a yawning gap between fine leg and mid on. Kohli wanted Umesh to be bowling wide outside off stump. Umesh bowled a full-toss on middle and leg. As a captain, Smith might have been appalled. As a batsman, he did not need to think, only react, flicking it crisply to the midwicket fence for his fourth hundred in as many Tests this series. Only Sir Donald Bradman and Jacques Kallis have done that before.

It was a moment that summed up Smith's mastery over these four Tests. India have tried lots of plans, often executing them dreadfully. Smith has been a step ahead most of the time anyway, and has spared nary a moment's sympathy for Kohli or his predecessor MS Dhoni in taking advantage of their bowlers' shortcomings. By the time of Sydney, a Smith hundred was more or less expected - he was even asked how he might celebrate one at his pre-match press conference. The certainty he has shown contrasts not only with India but also Australia.

"That's what you're after when you're on 98, it's nice to get one there," Smith said of the full toss. "It was another special moment to get a hundred on the home ground and my favourite place to play. I think yesterday afternoon when I went in to bat they tried to get me out caught at leg slip again the way they got me in Melbourne, and I think that played into my hands. The ball was a little bit softer at that time and the wicket was a little bit slow. So I never felt like I was ever going to hit one there. That enabled me to get in and from there I felt pretty comfortable, so it worked well for me in the end."

Belying the rarity of his achievement, Smith's century looked the most inevitable thing in the world. Belying the ease of batting on the second day against India, on a pristine pitch against tired bowlers, Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh and Joe Burns all conspired to fall short of their own. This was not to say they failed - Watson shared a stand of 196 with Smith, while Marsh and Burns put on 114 runs of increasing freedom and fluency. But the gap between Smith and the rest was pronounced, even on this most agreeable of all days to be batting.

Watson's innings was a struggle throughout. He fought admirably against forces mental, technical and physical, resisting urges of impatience and imprudence to be the junior partner in his union with Smith, scoring at a far inferior rate to the captain. Even the chance he gave R Ashwin on the penultimate ball of the first day was from a legitimate defensive edge against the second new ball, rather than the sort of intemperate stroke that had foiled him in similarly easygoing conditions in Adelaide.

Had Watson been thinking that things might get a little easier on the second morning, he was to be mistaken. While Smith glided smoothly and inevitably into the 90s and beyond, Watson strained and squeaked his way forward, like a personal trainer's pupil getting re-acquainted with the wages of sand dunes. Hundreds have always been a difficult thing for Watson to achieve, and on 81 he could stand the waiting game no longer, swivelling a pull shot straight to deep midwicket.

He was completely crestfallen at this moment, offering up a pained expression beneath the helmet then declining to offer much of a response to the applause of the SCG Members Pavilion as he trudged off. Watson's consuming desire to do well for the team has eaten up his ability to think clearly and score freely in the past, and in recent times he appears also to have lost the intimidation factor that his muscular batting was once able to inspire.

Bowlers who worried about Watson punching numerous early boundaries through their fields and softening the new ball presently have less reason to worry about this possibility, for he has tried to get established and settled at the crease before playing at a more middling tempo - a little like Ricky Ponting in his last 18 months post-captaincy. The responsibility inherent in the No. 3 position may be part of this, and it is plausible to wonder whether he might find more freedom and less pressure at No. 6.

Neither of Marsh or Burns looked convincing in their early minutes at the crease, as Kohli was able to cajole his bowlers into a more abstemious line and length. Ashwin's offbreaks teased them both, drawing an edge from the blade of Marsh that was missed in the slips. Burns spent 17 balls and a lunch break on a duck, after Marsh declined a seemingly obvious single late in the morning session. When Burns did get off the mark with a sweet cover drive, it was only because cover showed about as much interest in stopping it as Marsh had in the earlier single.

The longer he batted, the better Marsh looked, unfurling the odd straight drive that causes Test match selectors to purr. Burns was conservative to begin with, then increasingly confident, plucking regular boundaries off pace and spin while looking tighter in defence than he had been at the MCG. Both batsmen were admittedly helped by a sagging attack, Bhuvneshwar Kumar's pace dropping into the realm usually occupied by Shahid Afridi's quicker ball.

In the end, neither Marsh nor Burns would go on from a handy score to a major one, the former done in by the maddening half cut, half forcing stroke that seems better devised to find an outside edge than the boundary. Having witnessed Brad Haddin drive his very first ball for six down the ground, Burns' innings was ended by an attempt to lift the scoring rate further, as Mohammed Shami completed an apologetic-looking five-for.

Smith was happy with his men, not least because they had become the first Australia top six to all notch scores of 50 or better in a Test innings. "For us it was just about batting and batting time and reassessing at the lunch break. I thought Shane played a terrific first innings, I thought our whole top six played very well," Smith said. "Before this Test match I said to the boys I wanted the batters to do the work this game. I think we've relied a lot on the tail the last couple of Test matches and I said the batters had to step up. The whole top six got above 50 which I don't think has ever happened before, if I'm right. That's outstanding for us."

Many more storied Australian top orders have failed to do the trick that Smith's collective managed this day. But a considerable gap is evident between Smith and the rest - there will be days more challenging than this one where better bowling attacks will probe it thoroughly.