Adelaide: On the first Day of the opening Test between India and Australia, if the home side dominated most of the sessions, then the late strikes by Mohammed Shami helped India to get back into the match. The highlighter of the day was certainly the big hundred scored by the diminutive opener David Warner (145). However, the major concern for Oz is the back injury of their skipper Michael Clarke, who got retired hurt at 60 due to the back pain. For the visitors, their seamers -- Varun Aaron and Mohammed Shami -- picked two wickets each, out of the six wickets fell in the day. So on the first day both the teams have had their moments, as the match is evenly poised after the day's play.
Mohammed Shami picked up two wickets in his two overs to end their day on a high. Shami first scalped the wicket of night watchman N Lyon and then got the crucial wicket of veteran Brad Haddin to reduced Australia to 354 for six on Day one of the the first Test at Adelaide Oval.
Varun Aaron strikes again for India. Mitchell Marsh Out! A bit of extra bounce has done the trick as Kohli took a good catch at gully. A much needed breakthrough for the visitors.
MR Marsh c Kohli b Aaron 41 (87b)
India have taken the new ball. And stand-in skipper has straight away tossed the ball towards Ishant Sharma.
Two youngsters Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith are looking solid in the middle. In fact, Smith has crossed the fifty run-mark with the help of six boundaries. The home team is looking solid at the moment as the scorecard read 326/3 after 80 overs.
David Warner hundred takes Australia to 238/2 at tea
Picking up pieces after Phillip Hughes' death, an emotional David Warner took the Indian bowling attack to the cleaners smashing his way to a 10th hundred as Australia cruised to 238 for two at tea on the opening day of the first cricket Test, here today.
Warner went into the break undefeated on 131 off 140 balls with 17 boundaries after having added 118 runs for the third wicket with skipper Michael Clarke (60 retired hurt).
Clarke unfortunately had to retire hurt due to recurrence of back spasms while he was shaping to hook a wayward short bowl from Ishant Sharma, leaving some real concerns for the hosts about his further participation in the game.
Till he was at the crease, the Aussie captain looked in good touch hitting nine boundaries in 84 balls.
The highlight of the first two session certainly was Warner's batting as he took the Indian pace attack apart with some glorious strokes.
One saw an emotional side of Warner on two occasions. Once when he reached a personal score of 63, he raised his bat and looked towards heaven paying a tribute to his mate Hughes with the spectators at the Adelaide giving him a standing ovation.
Once he completed his 10th Test hundred with a pull off Aaron, he again became emotional as skipper Clarke gave him a long hug. There was no animated celebration but he did take off his helmet, wiped a tear and continued batting.
After opting to bat, Warner took Indian pacers to the task as he reached 77 during the first session.
There wasn't much to cheer about India's bowling with Varun Aaron (1/76 in 12 overs) proving to be very expensive while Mohammed Shami (0/71 in 12 overs) was also off the mark.
The spearhead of the attack Ishant Sharma (1/36) had a relatively better first two sessions.
While Ishant accounted for Chirs Rogers (9), Aaron dismissed Shane Watson (14).
Both Rogers and Watson, were out giving catches to Shikhar Dhawan stationed at second slip.
There was an emotional outpour before the start of play as tributes were paid to late Phillip Hughes. Both teams lined up behind his number 408 as everyone gathered at the stadium gave a rousing applause lasting 63 seconds. Hughes has been termed as the '13th man' of the Australian squad.
When Aaron bowled a sharp bouncer in the fourth over, the crowd applauded as a tribute to Hughes.
There was not much to write home about India's pace attack during the first session. In absence injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shami, who began the proceedings, straightaway went round the wicket to openers Warner and Rogers.
Aaron on the other hand, sprayed the ball all around and got a pasting from Warner. In fact, he hit six boundaries in the first three overs, racing to 28 off 13 balls.
The flat pitch at the Adelaide Oval meant that the pacers couldn't utilize the new ball properly and Warner continued scoring at a brisk pace, bringing up the Australian 50 as early as 8th over.
Ishant duly removed Rogers, with an angular delivery which was edged to Dhawan at second slip.
Watson (14) came to the crease thereafter and he was welcomed by a spurt of bouncers and short deliveries as Aaron and Shami regained some semblance of control.
But Warner at the other end couldn't be tamed as he brought up his 14th Test half-century in the 15th over, reaching the milestone off only 45 balls.
Debutant Karn (0-15) was introduced into the attack in the 18th over as the two batsmen looked to settle down.
But Watson was troubled by incoming deliveries from the Indian medium-pacers and didn't look comfortable in the middle at all. He was finally dismissed in the 19th over, caught at second slip by Dhawan off Aaron when he tried to cut a delivery withiut having the width to execute the shot.
The dismissal brought skipper Clarke to the crease and he was given a standing ovation by the Adelaide crowd for marshalling their cricket community bravely during the last two weeks.
Clarke and Warner avoided further damage to the innings before lunch, adding 25 runs for the third wicket as the 100-run mark came up in the 22nd over.
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