Day one of the first 4-day game between India ‘A’ & Australia ‘A’ saw runs from the bat of KL Rahul, a gritty half century from India ‘A’ captain Cheteshwar Pujara and some disciplined bowling by the Australia ‘A’ bowlers. India ‘A’ in the process ended up with 221/6 at stumps after winning the toss and electing to bat first at the M.A.Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. Earlier in the morning, openers KL Rahul and Abhinav Mukund got off to a flying start as the duo scored as many as 20 runs in just under two overs. Mukund though, who looked in good touch scoring two confident boundaries made his way back to the pavilion as he got his woodwork rattled by medium pacer Andrew Fekete. India were 20 for the loss of one wicket at that stage and then began the repair work from Rahul and captain Pujara. The duo played out the morning session watchfully and gave the odd bad delivery the treatment it deserved. Both batsmen got to their individual half centuries and India ‘A’ looked in a position of strength as the duo put on a 107-run stand for the second wicket. Pujara’s cautious effort finally gave way as he holed out to Usman Khawaja, handing Fekete his second wicket of the day. The score read 127/2 and five runs later it was Karun Nair who followed his captain back to the pavilion getting out for a duck. Young Shreyas Iyer and Rahul then put on a half century stand with Iyer scoring a confident 39. His stay at the crease was however halted by Gurinder Sandhu who got him bowled. Meanwhile, Rahul was at his confident best ably working away the bowlers for runs and slowly inching towards a century. Unfortunately he was out caught by Khawaja off the bowling of Sean Abbott just four short of a well deserved century. Naman Ojha then walked out to bat but was soon out scoring just 10. Vijay Shankar and Amit Mishra were unbeaten at stumps on day 1. Fekete and Steve O’Keefe claimed two wickets each for Australia ‘A’.