Virat Kohli's woeful form continued as India 'A' were shot out for a paltry 135 by Australia 'A' on Day 1 of the second unofficial 'Test' in Chennai on Wednesday.
India ‘A’ captain Cheteshwar Pujara opted to bat first but it took the Australians only 68.5 overs to bowl out the hosts.
India Test captain Kohli struggled during his hour-long innings that yielded 16 runs off 42 balls.
In reply, Australia 'A' safely negotiated the final hour, scoring 43 without loss in 13 overs. Cameron Bancroft (24 not out) and Usman Khawaja (13 not out) were at the crease at stumps on the opening day.
Australia’s bowling unit executed their plans perfectly. While pacer Gurinder Singh Sandhu (3-25) had best figures, left-arm spin twins Steve O'Keefe (2-30) and Ashton Agar (2-23) dealt telling blows at the top of the order.
Agar got the prized scalp of Kohli with an arm delivery. It was one the batsman failed to negotiate. The ball came straight; Kohli neither lunged forward or went on the backfoot and was struck plumb in front of the stumps.
It was a frustrating stay at the wicket even though he hit the other left-arm spinner, O'Keefe, for a straight six and got a boundary off Agar.
Coming back from a month-long vacation, Kohli did look rusty as he took time to get used to the pitch.
Earlier, Pujara (11 off 36 balls) and Abhinav Mukund (15 off 49 balls) started off too cautiously as only 18 runs came off the first 10 overs.
It was back-up seamer Marcus Stoinis, who got Pujara out in a manner that has become familiar with the Saurashtra batsman. He was beaten by an incoming delivery which beat his defences and crashed into the stumps.
Karun Nair was the only Indian batsman to get past the 20-run mark as he played a solid innings of 50, hitting five fours in 153 balls, as he made amends for the failure in the first match but had little support from the other end.
Mukund was out trying to cut O'Keefe, while Shreyas Iyer (1) misread the line and was bowled.
Naman Ojha (10) played 84 balls without much success before he lost his cool and was stumped off an Agar delivery.
Once Nair was out in the post-tea session, caught by Joe Burns off pacer Andrew Fekete, the last five wickets fell for 26 runs in 11.5 overs, with Sandhu wrapping up the tail.
Scorecard
India ‘A’ (1st innings):
Mukund c Matthew Wade b Stephen O'Keefe 15
Pujara b Marcus Stoinis 11
Kohli lbw b Ashton Agar 16
Nair c Joe Burns b Andrew Fekete 50
Iyer b Stephone O'Keefe 1
Ojha st Matthew Wade b Ashton Agar 10
Aparajith lbw b Gurinder Sandhu
Gopal not out 5
Aaron lbw bGurinder Sandhu 0
Thakur ct Callium Ferguson b Andrew Fekete 4
Ojha b Sandhu 0
Extras: (B-1, LB-2, W-4, NB-4) 11
Total: (all out in 68.5 overs) 135
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-44, 3-52, 4-53, 5-109, 6-114,7-125, 8-125,9-130.
Bowling: Gurinder Sandhu 15.5-4-25-3, Andrew Fekete 14-1-32-2, Stephen O'Keefe 17-5-30-2, Marcus Stoinis 10-3-21-1, Ashton Agar12-3-23-2.
Australia ‘A’ (1st innings):
Bancroft not out 24
Khawaja not out 13
Extras: (B-1, W-1, NB-4) 6
Total: (for no loss in 13 overs) 43
Bowling: Thakur 3-1-11-0, Aaron 5-2-13-0, Ojha 4-0-17-0, Aparajith 1-0-1-0.
