Australia lost both the openers before reaching 57/2 at lunch on Day 2 of the opening Test against India at the Adelaide Oval here on Friday.
Usman Khawaja (21 not out) and Shaun Marsh (1 not out) headed back undefeated at the interval as the hosts trailed by 193 runs to the visitors' first innings total of 250.
The Indian response came quite early in the Aussie innings, with a brilliant inswinger from veteran pacer Ishant Sharma cleaning up Aaron Finch in the very first over for a third-ball duck.
Thereafter, the other opener Marcus Harris (26) and the in-form No.3 Khawaja struck a 45-run stand for the second wicket.
The partnership went on smoothly as both the batsmen looked at ease while facing the pace trio of Ishant, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami.
But Harris' troubles of reading off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was evident from the time the tweaker came in to bowl before eventually falling to the same bowler after a decent start.
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Earlier, Australia took just one ball to wrap up the visitors' innings for the overnight score of 250.
Pacer Josh Hazlewood got the last man Shami (6) caught behind on the very first ball to deny the visitors any addition to the overnight score.
For the hosts, Hazlewood shone with three wickets, while fellow quicks Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins took two scalps each. The spinner Nathan Lyon also bagged a couple of wickets.
Earlier on Thursday, India were reduced to 19/3 before centurion Cheteshwar Pujara's gritty 16th Test ton (123) anchored the innings to 250/9 at stumps.
Pujara, however fell to a brilliant run out on the last ball of the opening day.
Brief Scores: India 250 (Cheteshwar Pujara 123, Rohit Sharma 37; Josh Hazlewood 3/52, Pat Cummins 2/49) vs Australia 57/2 (Marcus Harris 26, Usman Khawaja 21 not out; Ishant Sharma 1/9).
--IANS
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