The destructive batsman in Mitchell Johnson was awakened by India's aggressive tactics at the Gabba on Friday and, for the second time in as many Brisbane Tests, he was part of a partnership that changed the match.

Last summer, Johnson's 114-run stand with Brad Haddin saved Australia, and from that day forward he frightened the wits out of England's batsmen with the ball.

India's batsmen have already shown they are made of much sterner stuff than that, and mounted yet another fightback to be 1-71 in their second innings with the match delicately poised at stumps on day three.

While Haddin's batting has fallen off a cliff since last summer's Ashes, Steve Smith's has scaled new heights. On Friday, Johnson and Smith slammed 148 runs in two hours, breaking a 24-year-old record for seventh-wicket partnerships at the Gabba and paving the way for Australia to seize an improbable 97-run first innings lead.

That lead was trimmed to 26 by stumps and it was the other Mitch – Starc – who claimed the prized wicket of in-form opener Murali Vijay for 27.

The audacious Shikhar Dhawan (26 not out) negotiated a testing spell from Josh Hazlewood and Cheteshwar Pujara (15) showed his class with a couple of controlled boundaries off Johnson.

For Australia, all out 505 was a much stronger position than they could have hoped for with the innings precariously placed at 6-247 when Smith and Johnson joined forces.

Mitchell Marsh had shouldered arms to Ishant Sharma and watched the ball deck back onto his stumps for 11.

Young paceman Varun Aaron had his tail up, having charged in from around the wicket to direct a bouncer into the body of the out-of-touch Haddin, who gloved it to short leg.

But the tourists commenced a dangerous game with Johnson. They attacked him with verbals (Rohit Sharma greeted him with a spray) and short-pitched bowling, but the tactic backfired badly as Johnson pummelled the faltering attack for a blistering 88.

"I just think he came out and was positive from ball one, that was his mindset," said Smith. "They tried to be quite aggressive with him, bowling short, and tried to get stuck into him and I think that played into his favour. He took 'em on and they didn't have an answer for him, to be honest."

For a while, Johnson's powerful strokeplay overshadowed Smith's progress as the left-hander emphatically pulled the short stuff from Ishant and crashed straight boundaries off the bowling of the over-zealous Aaron.

Fellow Indian quick Umesh Yadav admitted the tourists became carried away with short-pitched bowling and leaked too many runs after holding the early advantage.

Johnson reached his 10th Test half-century in 37 balls and looked destined for his second ton until Ishant angled one across him and and had him edging to M.S. Dhoni.

At the other end, Smith, who has not put a foot wrong since he was thrust into the captaincy six days ago, carried on his exuberant and assertive form to become the fifth Australian to score a century in his maiden innings as Test skipper.

He reached his sixth Test century with a cut behind point. But his most memorable shot was an uppercut to a short-pitched ball from Aaron, played as if reaching to remove a cobweb from a corner of the ceiling. It was the stroke of a batsman on top of his game.

Even after Smith was dismissed for the first time in the series, chopping a ball from Ishant onto his stumps to give him a series average of 347, the Australian tail wagged.

Starc batted with the confidence missing from his first innings bowling effort for his fourth Test half-century, and had staunch support from new No.11 Hazlewood, who showed he could  hit boundaries as well as bowl.

The 23-year-old debutant added an unbeaten 32, including seven fours, to his five-wicket haul from the first innings.

"Our whole tail batted beautifully, to get us up over 500 was remarkable," Smith said.

"We had a good day of cricket in the end so hopefully we start well in the morning and pick up some wickets."

The Indian openers got through the new ball spells on Friday evening, Vijay crashing a couple of drives to the boundary off  Johnson. But he made a late decision to leave an angled delivery from Starc and was bowled for 27.