Australian captain Ricky Ponting and opener Simon Katich weathered a first session storm to take the tourists to 1-75 at lunch on day one of the first Test against India in Bangalore.
Matthew Hayden was dismissed in the first over of the match, and Ponting (41no) and Katich (28no) required considerable grit to survive the new-ball spells of Zaheer Khan (1-16) and Ishant Sharma (0-23) before things became a little easier against the spinners on a friendly pitch.
The first rounds of Ponting’s duel against young paceman Sharma and provocative spinner Harbhajan Singh (0-19) were won by the batsman, and Katich frustrated the Indians by scrapping runs in his ungainly style.
Both batsmen made good their promise to stretch an ageing India in the field by running plenty of sharp singles at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Much had been said about the importance of veteran Hayden to the Australian cause, but on the first morning of the series he lasted just three balls.
Allowing the first two from Zaheer to pass, Hayden pushed at the third and after a confused mix of bat, pad and possibly outside edge, was sent on his way by umpire Asad Rauf.
Replays suggested bat and ball had not touched, the noise caused instead by the impact of bat onto pad.
Marching to the wicket amidst a crescendo of noise, an assured Ponting set about repairing the damage with Katich.
The surface offered decent bounce and carry to Zaheer and Sharma, however there was not much of the swing that many had predicted in the heavy air.
Indian skipper Anil Kumble called on Harbhajan to bowl the 13th over of the innings, and after Katich had blocked out his first two overs, Ponting faced up to his nemesis in the third.
Harbhajan’s first ball to Ponting was an attempted quicker delivery but poorly pitched, and the batsman had little trouble flicking it down to the vacant fine leg boundary.
The Australians named 25-year-old Victorian allrounder Cameron White for his Test debut, relegating finger spinner Jason Krejza to 12th man duties.
Ponting had said he was impressed by how Krejza had responded at training this week, but in the end his horrid return of 0-199 from 31 overs in Australia’s final warm-up match made him difficult to select.
