Quote:[size=12pt]Of  an Indian cricket team's usual travel items – inflatable pillow, toiletries, phone cards – the current touring batsmen  appear to have left the kryptonite at home. Admittedly, Adelaide laid out not so much a cricket pitch as a welcome mat; and the Australian bowling looked rusty, or emotionally flat, or both; but the Indian top order did not fall over and did not get themselves out, instead putting in seven bright, confident hours at the wicket.

Even if the Australian bowlers were not at their most fiery, a score of 517 exerts a menace of its own. Bravely, whether via the breezy fluency of Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane or the composed orthodoxy of senior men Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay, India showed  they had come to compete. On a wicket where it was easier to stay in than get in, they avoided losing wickets in the clumps that would have given Australia oxygen and energy.[/size]