Ponting pleased with start

Ricky Ponting knuckled down to score his first ton in India

Australia captain Ricky Ponting was satisfied with the way his team performed on the opening day of the first Test against India.

Australia closed on 254 for four after winning a good toss in Bangalore, with Ponting himself leading the way with 123, his first Test century on Indian soil.

It was a good comeback for Australia after opener Matthew Hayden was dismissed off the third delivery of the day.

Ponting and Simon Katich put on 166 runs for the second wicket but the good work of that stand was slightly undone when Ponting fell for 123 in the evening session, before Michael Clarke (11) was trapped leg before by Zaheer Khan with what turned out to be the final ball of the day.

Despite the late dismissals, Ponting was still happy with the day’s play, saying: “Yes, I'm satisfied and it was a pretty good day for Australia.

“One for none after three balls and I was out (in the middle) nice and early. We managed to solve that really well through the end of the day, but the last two wickets in the last half hour were a little disappointing for us.

"But yes, I think we are in a pretty good position and 250 at the end of the day on that surface was a pretty good effort.

"We still have a bit of batting to come and hopefully the rest of the guys in the order can get some partnerships on the board and get us to a nice total."

Ponting dismissed suggestions that his team did not make full use of the opportunity to score more runs on a flat track.

"I don't think we were that defensive today,” he said.

"The Indians had a few guys out on the fence pretty early in the day, so a lot of boundary-scoring options were taken away from us. It wasn't a pretty good wicket to score on, there was not much bounce and there wasn't much pace either.

"The ball got soft quite early on today. I understand they have some problems with the cricket ball over here over the last 12 months. The ball has been going soft - it happened in our tour game as well.

Ishant Sharma preached the importance of being patient

"It wasn't perfect batting conditions so at the end of the day I'm fairly happy with the situation we are in.”

Ponting has a poor record wth the bat in India, with an average of just 12 prior to this Test. But after recording his first century on the subcontinent, and 36th in his 200th Test innings, the Tasmanian was happy with his day’s work.

"It was nice to get some runs today,” he said. "I have been really working very hard and I played very well today. My record here has been poor and I have been working hard and doing my best to rectify that.

"Today is one step in the right direction and its nice to get the team to a good position. But one innings doesn't make a tour. There are a few more innings on this tour and hopefully I will get some runs again.”

The Australia skipper reiterated his belief that his team was well prepared for the tour.

"I have been working hard on getting a game plan and a technique in place over the last couple of weeks since we've been in India to give ourselves the best chance of having some success here.

"One of the great strengths of our team is that the batsmen will get some inner truth about their game plan. Everyone plays differently.

"I've come up with a game plan that holds me in good stead. So things worked well today and we hope to make it work for the rest of the tour."

India paceman Ishant Sharma revealed bowlers needed to be patient to be successful.

"We had a pretty good last session and I think the match is evenly balanced," he said.

"You need to have a lot of patience on this wicket. It's a slow wicket and you have to consistently hit the right areas.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow, Sharma added: “I think the first session will be crucial to both sides.

"If we get early breakthroughs and restrict Australia to a total under 300, I think it would be a good total for us.”