Mitchell Marsh hits ton before India A fight back

Australia A posted 346 in Bengaluru, before India A fought well with the bat to reach 223/3, with Marsh bowling five overs as he steps up his quest towards full recovery.

Australia entered day two on 290/6, with Marsh on 86 not out, and Michael Neser on 44. The latter did not add to his overnight score, but Chris Tremain (11) offered captain Marsh sufficient support to help him on his way to three figures.

Marsh credited his 204-ball knock in part to his prior subcontinent experience. "I’ve played a bit in the subcontinent now and I’ve leant on my experience of that," he said after the day's play.

"Obviously it can be really hard to start over here so I had a clear game-plan and I just tried to stick with that every single ball that I was out there.

"I felt like I took on the pressure well and it was really nice to spend some time in the middle. I hadn’t batted in a while and naturally you’re a little bit nervous, but I settled into my innings nicely and it’s nice to get a hundred."

Left-arm tweaker Kuldeep Yadav, recently released from India's tour of England to get more game-time, took Australia A's final three wickets to post figures of 5/91, before India began their reply in dominant fashion.

Abhimanyu Easwaran (86) and Ravikumar Samarth (83) put on 176 for the first wicket as Australia A toiled with the ball, before Ashton Agar dismissed the latter lbw, and Easwaran fell just two overs later courtesy of a Marnus Labuschagne run out.

Mitchell Swepson became Australia's second wicket-taking spinner when he had Ankit Bawne (13) caught shortly before the close of play, while Shreyas Iyer was unbeaten on 30, and Shubman Gill on 6* at stumps for day two.

Seven bowlers turned their arms over for the visitors, Marsh being one of them, and despite his long lay-off from bowling, he wasn't feeling the effects of his spell just yet.

"I’m actually feeling really good, feeling fresh," Marsh added.

"Before, I’ve had five months to prepare for this game so if I wasn’t prepared for it I would have been pretty annoyed.

"(I'm) feeling really good, not too sore at the moment. Once you start bowling in games the body always seems to tighten up a bit so maybe I might be a bit sore tomorrow but right now I’m feeling really good."

In terms of the remainder of the game, Marsh believes that his spinners could play a crucial role in securing a result for his side, and despite making a personal comeback with the ball, he won't be rushing into any extended spells.

"I think spin is going to come into play, we’ve already seen there’s a bit of rough out there for our spin bowlers so I’ll bowl where i see fit, but it’s purely about getting back into it for me.

"I’m not going to push myself too far in the first game, we’ve a long 12 months of international cricket."