Brisbane, Dec 17 (IANS) A 56-run partnership for the opening wicket between Murali Vijay (batting 46) and Shikhar Dhawan (24) helped India reach 89 for one at lunch on day one of the second Test against Australia at the Gabba here on Wednesday.
The two openers gave a good account of themselves after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the brave decision to bat after winning the toss. The extra bounce, certainly, did cause a few problems to both the batsmen, but patient and cautious batting helped them get past the testing times.
Apart from a little bit of movement early on, the pitch looked pretty good to bat on, and both Vijay and Dhawan played some cracking shots. Vijay, though, lived a charmed life after edging a few playing away from his body - and was put down by Shaun Marsh at gully.
Dhawan seemed to have gotten off to a good start before he got himself out to a short and wide delivery from Mitchell Marsh. Vijay hit six fours while Dhawan also looked good, smashing four boundaries.
Cheteshwar Pujara (batting 15) and Vijay got together and increased India's advantage. The duo put on an unbeaten 33 runs for the second wicket to take India into the break with just one loss.
Pujara had a couple of close shaves too, but none of the Australian bowlers really troubled the batsmen, in the sense of probing away and bowling long stretches of testing deliveries.
SCORECARD
India:
Murali Vijay batting 46
Shikhar Dhawan c Haddin b M Marsh 24
Cheteswar Pujara batting 15
Extras (b4)
Total (for one wicket in 25 overs) 89
Fall of wickets: 1-56 (Dhawan, 13.4 overs)
Bowling:
Mitchell Johnson 6-0-31-0
Josh Hazlewood 7-3-15-0 Mitchell Starc 3-0-17-0
Mitchell Marsh 5-1-13-1
Nathan Lyon 4-0-9-0
Match Details:
Toss: India chose to bat
Test debut: Josh Hazlewood (Australia)
Umpires: Marais Erasmus (South Africa) and Ian Gould (England)
TV umpire: Simon Fry
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)
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