Mitchell Marsh scored a fine 96 in front of 39,802 crowd as Australia took firm control at the end of Day 3 of the opening test against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Resuming at 194/6, the overnight pair of Mohammad Rizwan and Aamir Jamal added 21 more runs before the former perished to Pat Cummins.
Jamal and Shaheen Shah Afridi scored some handy runs down the order to take Pakistan to 264, with an overall lead of 54.
In response, Australia were rocked early losing first 4 wickets for 16 runs. But Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh added 153 runs for the fifth wicket stand before the latter fell to a brilliant one handed catch by Agha Salman at slips for 96.
Smith scored a valuable 50 as Australia ended Day 3 at 187/6 with an overall lead of 241.
Australia 318 and 187 for 6 (Marsh 96, Smith 50, Hamza 3-27, Afridi 3-58)) lead Pakistan 264 (Shafique 62, Masood 54, Cummins 5-48, Lyon 4-73) by 241 runs