Openers Chris Rogers and David Warner struck fluent fifties to help Australia get off to a rollicking start as the hosts reached 123 for no loss at lunch on day one of the fourth and final cricket Test against India at the SCG, here today.
Electing to bat on a good pitch in hot conditions, Rogers (52 not out) and Warner (63 not out) set the tone right from the very start and helped the Steven Smith-led side maintain a healthy scoring rate of 4.39 in the first session of play.
Both the batsmen combined the right dose of caution and aggression to once again make the Indian pace attack look ordinary.
New-ball bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0-30) and Umesh Yadav (0-42) got the stick in the initial overs and Mohammed Shami's introduction also did not help matters for the Virat Kohli-led side.
Shami (0-31) though was unlucky in his second over when the medium-pacer got Rogers to edge the ball to Lokesh Rahul at second slip and the youngster spilled the chance. Rogers was on 19.
The left-handed batsman made full use of the life to notch his 10th Test fifty and his fifth in this series.
But Warner it was who led the charge as the left-handed batsman scored at a strike rate of 85.13. The entertaining batsman got his 14th Test fifty in the 19th over of the innings.
The introduction of spin in the 14th over did help India check the scoring rate a bit as Ravichandran Ashwin (0-17) bowled well but Rogers and Warner stuck to their guns.
At the end of the session, if Australia were left smiling then Kohli, standing in his first game as regular captain, after Mahendra Singh Dhoni's retirement, got a little taste of leading the Indian side.
