Indian seamers make early impact

The Indians made a promising beginning to their tour of Australia, with every bowler picking up a wicket and the batting making a steady start, albeit against a raw Cricket Australia XI that had only two players older than 22, at the Gilderol Stadium in Adelaide.

Fast bowler Varun Aaron was the most successful of the attack, bowling with pace and bounce to pick up three top-order wickets. Seamers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami, and uncapped legspinner Karn Sharma took two each, while R Ashwin returned figures of 12-3-22-1. CA XI were dismissed for 219 in 71.5 overs, and the Indians lost Shikhar Dhawan cheaply in the 16 overs they had to bat before stumps.

After choosing to bat on a grassy pitch, CA XI recovered from losing Matthew Short o Bhuvneshwar in the first over through a half-century stand between Ashton Turner and Ryan Carters. Aaron then struck twice in three balls, drawing an edge from Turner before going between bat and body to hit the top of Nick Stevens' middle stump.

There was another half-century stand for the fourth wicket after lunch, between Carters and Kelvin Smith, before Bhuvneshwar had Smith caught in the slips. CA XI unravelled quickly after Carters was out for 58, caught down the leg side off Ashwin by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who ended the day with six dismissals.

A speedy finish seemed likely as Shami, Aaron and Karn ran through the lower order to reduce CA XI to 9 for 167, but little-known Harry Nielsen, son of former Australia coach Tim Nielsen, made 43 off 40 balls. He put on 52 for the last wicket with Harry Conway before Karn ended the innings.

Dhawan lasted only 20 balls in the Indians' innings, but M Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara steered the team through to stumps with the score on 1 for 55.