India finished day three with a healthy lead of 346 runs after Jasprit Bumrah's career-best 6/33 helped the visitors sink Australia for 151 in 1st innings.
"I think it's always hard for India to push the run rate along when Pujara's there," Ponting added.
Pujara termed Melbourne hundred as an "important knock" while rating the Adelaide ton as a "special knock".
Pujara admitted that the pitch is extremely difficult to bat on and the runs put on board is good enough to challenge Australia.
Finch said that he wasn't surprised after India declared with 25 minutes remaining in the day.
Roberts said the timing of the interviews wasn't ideal, given that they have overshadowed the crucial third Test against India.
At stumps, Australia were placed at 8 for no loss from 6 overs with openers Aaron Finch and Marcus Harris were both unbeaten on 3 and 5 respectively. India lead by 435 runs.
Cheteshwar Pujara produced yet another classy hundred and combined with captain Virat Kohli (82) to put India in command on the second day of the third Test against Australia.
Tim Paine's comments behind the stumps went on for a few overs with Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians captain, breaking into a smile every now and then.
Kerry O'Keefe was quoted as saying that Mayank Agarwal's maiden first-class triple century came against "Railways canteen staff".
Some epic moments were caught in the 'Kiss Cam' which were displayed on the giant screen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
India captain Virat Kohli is now the highest-scoring Indian Test batsman on overseas soil in a calendar year.
Cheteshwar Pujara's century, which came off 280 balls, was all about patience. He is the fifth Indian batsman to score a Boxing Day Test hundred.
India vs Australia, 3rd Test: Hosts Australia were 8/0 at stumps, trailing India (443/7 decl) in the first innings at the end of day two in Melbourne.
The MCG crowd started booing Marsh once Marsh's name was announced on the public address system when he came onto bowl.
"We don't go out there to try and lose games of cricket, we go out there to try and win and play the best way we can," said Smith.
Ponting, a three-time ICC Cricket World Cup winner including two times as captain, is the 25th Australia cricketer to be formally inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Agarwal became only the seventh Indian opener to score a half-century on Test debut and also registered the highest score for a debutant Indian batsman on Australian soil.
Australian bowlers had to toil hard as India finished at 215-2 with Kohli (47) and Cheteshwar Pujara (68) remaining unbeaten at Stumps.
O'Keefe remarked that the triple century that Agarwal had scored earlier in the Ranji Trophy, came against "some team like Canteen XI".
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