Aaron Hardie and Harry Nielsen scored blistering half-centuries to take Cricket Australia XI to a score of 356 for two at stumps on day three of the lone tour match against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
Resuming at Thursday's score of 24-0, the Indian bowlers were made to work hard against the young Australian outfit as openers D'Arcy Short (74) and Max Bryant (62) provided the home side with a perfect start, stitching a crucial partnership of 114 runs for the first wicket.
Subsequently, first drop Jake Carder and Sam Whiteman also contributed 38 and 35 runs, respectively, before Hardie (56) and Nielsen (69) joined forces to share an unbeaten partnership of 122 runs and reduce Cricket Australia's first innings gap to just two runs.
For India, Mohammad Shami was the pick of the bowlers as he finished with the figures of three for 67. While Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav chipped in with a wicket each, Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant Sharma had a wicketless day.
The day also saw Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who has eight international wickets to his name, come out to bowl. Kohli introduced himself into the attack during 87th over in order to break the strong partnership of Hardie and Nielsen.
Meanwhile, India also suffered a major blow earlier in the day when young batsman Prithvi Shaw was carried off the field after he landed awkwardly on his left ankle while trying to take a catch off Australian opener Max Bryant on the deep midwicket boundary.
Shaw, who was certain to open the batting for India, was subsequently ruled out of the first Test of the four-match series against Australia, beginning December 6 at the Adelaide Oval.
