A grinding half century from Canberra product Ryan Carters saved the Cricket Australia XI from a complete rout on the opening day of a two-day clash with India at Adelaide on Monday.
Opening batsman Carters, NSW's reigning Sheffield Shield player of the year, made 58 off 151 balls in the hosts' first innings 219 before falling victim to Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Express paceman Varn Aaron finished the pick of the bowlers with 3-72 from 17 overs, while fellow quicks Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar grabbed two wickets each.
Aaron's opening spell of six overs went for 15 runs and featured the scalps of CA XI captain Ashton Turner and Queensland's Nick Stevens.
The right-armer, clocked at 152.1 km/h during a recent one-day international against Sri Lanka, returned later to remove Alex Gregory.
He did however cop some late punishment from Harry Nielsen (43 not out), son of former Australia coach Tim, and NSW quick Harry Conway, the pair putting on a final-wicket stand of 52 runs.
The visitors are playing a pair of two-day matches to warm up for the four-Test series.
