Australian bowlers toil hard in practice game

India Test aspirants Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli slammed centuries on Thursday as Australia toiled in the field on day one of its warm-up game against the Board President's XI.

Sharma and Kohli posted identical scores of 105 and shared a 146-run partnership for the fifth wicket that boosted Board President's XI to 371-6 at stumps on the first day of the four-day contest.

Sharma struck four sixes and 11 fours from 144 deliveries, while Kohli hit one six and 14 fours off 146 balls.

Batting first after winning the toss, Board President's XI openers Aakash Chopra (25) and Wasim Jaffer (19) added 47 runs before Jaffer pulled pace bowler Stuart Clark straight to Mitchell Johnson at fine-leg. Chopra departed soon after, trapped LBW to become the first scalp for Johnson (3-62). Subramaniam Badrinath then fell to Peter Siddle (1-41) after scoring just two runs.

Board President's XI captain Yuvraj Singh appeared in good form as he struck five boundaries in his 47-ball 29, but fell when caught in two minds against a rising delivery from Johnson, edging the ball to Michael Hussey in the slips.

Yuvraj's exit brought Kohli in to join Sharma and the pair dominated the Australian attack, which missed the services of all-rounder Shane Watson who had not recovered from a viral infection.

Sharma moved from 86 to 98 with two successive sixes against off-spinner Jason Krejza (0-123), whose struggles on day one highlighted Australia's dearth of spin options. Sharma completed his century by driving left-arm spinner Michael Clarke (0-45) to the mid-off fence, before falling as he pulled Johnson straight to Krejza at square-leg.

Kohli also reached his century in style with a cover driven four off pace ace Brett Lee (1-30), who had his revenge soon by trapping the batsman lbw.
Parthiv Patel (49 not out) and Irfan Pathan (17 not out) denied Australian bowlers further success and saw the home team through to the close.