Aaron shines as focus shifts back to cricket

Attention finally turned to cricket in Australia, as the touring Indians resumed their preparations for the Test by bowling out Cricket Australia XI for 243 on pleasant sunny day in their final two-day tour game at the Glenelg Oval in Adelaide. Varun Aaron was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets, the first of them in his first over, but the usual Indian problem of too many no-balls - nine on this day - in practice games and uncertainty around the slip cordon stayed with the visitors. India's batsmen didn't have the best day either: Shikhar Dhawan bagged a golden duck, Virat Kohli should have too, M Vijay was dropped on 5, and Cheteshwar Pujara added only 10 after being dropped on 12.

The CA XI agreed to bat first, most likely because three Indian batsmen - Kohli, Vijay and Rohit Sharma - who had gone to Phillip Hughes' funeral in Macksville were due to reach the venue only after lunch. Hughes was given more touching tributes as all the Indians put their bats out against the picket fence, and both the teams observed a minute's silence before the game got underway. All players and umpires wore black armbands. In Kohli's absence, Ishant Sharma led the Indians.

The start was anything but quiet, though. In the first over itself, Ryan Carters edged Mohammed Shami through to second slip. In the next, Ashton Turner played Aaron on to his leg stump. This is not a first-class game, which means India could have used any number of bowlers, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar and R Ashwin did not bowl. India instead went with pace and aggression. Shami, Aaron and Umesh Yadav were the first three bowlers used by Ishant, and none of them held back with the bouncers.

All of India's quicks used the bouncers liberally, almost as if they wanted to get any reservations about bowling the bouncers out of their system before they went into the Test, which begins on December 9 at the Adelaide Oval. Later during the day, Kohli applauded from the sidelines when Aaron hit Seb Gotch with a bouncer. Earlier, too, Alex Keath recieved treatment on a finger that received a blow from a short ball. However, it was a short-of-a-length delivery from Shami that brought the Indians their next wicket, with Matthew Short chasing and edging through to Wriddhiman Saha to make it 3 for 34.

Jordan Silk, though, responded by attacking the bowling, and took CA XI to lunch without any further damage. There was attractive stroke-play involved. He was good on the cut against the quicks, and didn't let the legspinner Karn Sharma settle into a rhythm. The first two overs from Karn went for two fours and a six, through mid-on, over mid-off and back over his head. His 71-run stand with Keath came to an end when extra bounce from Aaron caught Silk's glove on its way through to the cordon, just after lunch.

Keath and Jake Doran then played loose shots against Karn, followed by another played-on dismissal for Aaron. By now the three batsmen had made their way to the ground, and Indians kept rotating the fielders on the park so that all the batsmen could get a hit in the adjoining nets too. Saha swapped gloves with Naman Ojha when he went to the nets. Unless MS Dhoni has recovered miraculously from his finger injury, Saha is expected to keep at the Adelaide Oval, incidentally where he last played a Test.

The slips kept rotating too. It began with Pujara, Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane. When Pujara needed to go under the lid, Ravindra Jadeja replaced him at first slip. Suresh Raina later replaced Rahane at third slip. Vijay had a stint too. Even Kohli fielded in the slips during the second session. Slip catching was one of India's problem areas in England, and they wouldn't want to see more missed chances and drop in confidence for the bowlers. Raina is not a likely starter as a Test batsman, but he showed his worth in the slips when he dived to his right at third slip, and took a one-handed catch to end CA XI's innings.

Slips remained the focus in the Indians' innings too as Turner kept reprieving the Indians. The first wicket, though, had nothing to do with the slips. Dhawan was a tad unfortunate when he whipped a leg-stump half-volley, and found square leg with precision. Soon, though, Vijay pushed at a wide one, and Turner grassed a comfortable catch at first slip. Immediately after, Pujara was nearly caught and bowled by Josh Lalor.

Lalor was a relieved man when Pujara poked at a wide delivery, giving Turner a catch to his right. The next ball should have brought Lalor a wicket with Kohli cutting loosely, but Turner didn't accept what was a much easier offering than the one he took a ball earlier. Vijay and Kohli saw the Indians through to the stumps, but didn't always look at their best. Vijay even flayed at the last ball of the day, but was lucky he did not edge it.