Opener Murali Vijay (batting 73) continued to impress but India suffered a few setbacks to reach 151 for three at tea on day one of the second Test against Australia at the Gabba here Wednesday.
The loss of Cheteshwar Pujara (18) and double-innings centurion from the previous match Virat Kohli (19) put India on the backfoot.
Vijay held fort along with Ajinkya Rahane (13) and took India into the break without any more losses.
Australia did pull things back with the wickets of Pujara and Kohli, both falling to debutant pacer Josh Hazlewood.
But they would consider a bit fortunate. While Pujara's dismissal was an extremely poor decision by the umpire, Kohli fell trying to knock the leather of a short and wide delivery.
That being said, the hosts bowled a lot better, created more pressure on the batsmen, both with the ball and in the field.
Vijay survived another half-chance, when the ball didn't quite stick in Mitchell Starc's hand for a caught and bowled opportunity. But he remained calm and managed to hit nine boundaries.
Earlier, a 56-run partnership for the opening wicket between Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan (24) helped India reach 89 for one at lunch.
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.
Left-hander 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.
