Hobart, Dec 19: The touring Indians had an indifferent start to their three-day cricket match against Australia 'A', who dominated the opening day at the picturesque Bellerive Oval here today. The hosts won the toss and piled up a score of 311 for five in 74-odd overs before declaring their innings and gave an early jolt to the Indians by removing opener Sadagopan Ramesh in the remaining 13 overs.

India finished the day at 37 for one with Aakash Chopra and Deep Dasgupta at the crease on 12 and 18 respectively. Ramesh (4) was dismissed when he took his eyes off a lifting delivery from Matt Nicholson and lobbed it in the gully region where Damien Wright took a neat catch.

Speedster Shaun Tait, whose pace is in the news in recent days, bowled a couple of overs but the pitch did not seem an ally to his kind of methods. The home team was given a good kick-start by openers Michael Hussey (67) and Chris Rogers (70) who put on 119 runs for the first wicket. Then Martin Love, the Test hopeful, further staked his claims with a strokeful knock of 94 which caught the attention of a smattering of spectators on a grayish, cold damp day at Bellerive Oval.

Love was neat in his footwork and did a bit of damage to left-arm spinner Murali Kartik's figures with some lusty hitting, including a lofted straight drive which cleared the ground. Kartik, introduced into the attack only in the 40th over, was nagging in his first spell of nine overs for 23 runs but then suffered at the hands of the home batsmen. Australia 'A' were given a great start by Hussey and Rogers who took the lunch at 114 for no loss.

Rogers was reprieved on 50 by Ramesh when he drove at a widish half volley from captain Sourav Ganguly and the catch flew at gully. India finally broke through at the total on 119 when Rogers fell to a catch behind the stumps off Ganguly's bowling for 70, having batted for 127 minutes and faced 94 deliveries, hitting 10 fours. Ashish Nehra was used only for 10 overs by Ganguly, who decided to play the match at the last minute, but took two batsmen out from the middle -- Hussey, essaying a pull and offering a catch to Ganguly at mid-on and then off the last ball before tea, Brad Hodge was cleaned up for one.

Hussey batted for 225 minutes for his 67 runs, hitting six fours and a six from 158 deliveries. Hodge, who had made a stunning 264 against the Indians for Victoria at the MCG in the opening match of the tour, lasted for 15 minutes and faced 15 balls as he could not come up with the slow nature of the pitch. Despite the overhead cloud cover, the strip in the middle did not offer much pace or bounce to the bowlers and the visitors mostly toiled in unhelpful conditions.

Nehra was the pick of Indian bowler with 2 for 33 from 10 overs. Irfan Pathan was hit around for a few runs and Laxmipathy Balaji appeared a bowler whose confidence is at a low ebb. Not only did he concede 84 runs in his 18 overs, he overstepped the bowling crease nine times. The Indian seamers did no good to their side's cause by bowling as many as 17 no balls and three wides. Besides Balaji's nine no balls, captain Ganguly bowled seven. Pathan, who went for 77 runs in his 22 overs, was responsible for all the wides.

After Ramesh's departure in the third over with the Indian innings scoreboard reading five, Chopra and Dasgupta displayed some patience in negotiating the opposition pacers. Chopra's unbeaten 12 came in almost one hour and 35 balls while Dasgupta took 34 balls for his unfinished knock. Rahul Dravid, who scored a career-best 233 and 72 not out to play a stellar role in India's historic Test win in Adelaide, V V S Laxman, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan were rested for the match. (Agencies) Scorecard

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