Mumbai: The visiting Australian cricketers made a sound start to their tour of India, scoring briskly against Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai after a rain-delayed start in the warm-up game here at the Brabourne Stadium today.

At tea on the first day, the visitors were 69 for no loss in 19 overs after electing to bat first.

After being made to cool their heels for three hours with the ground being drenched from heavy thundershowers that lashed the city last night and this morning, the tourists commenced their task of getting into the groove for the harder task ahead in businesslike fashion.

Openers Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer feasted on the largely insipid attack of pace and spin dished out by Mumbai to rattle up the first 50 of the innings in the 15th over.

The burly Hayden was severe on anything off length and particularly looked at ease against the spinning ball.

The left-hander cut, pull-swept and drove with tremendous power, hitting off break bowler Ramesh Powar - who surprisingly opened the attack with Ajit Agarkar -- for a straight six and two fours in the 11th over which yielded 16 runs.

Langer played the ideal foil at the other end, but was also on the look-out for runs as the visitors tried to make good the loss of time because of the delayed start.

At the break, Hayden was on 45 off as many balls with the help of one six and six fours while Langer was unbeaten on 24, which included four boundaries.

The Mumbai attack looked pedestrian on the easy-paced wicket that offered modest bounce in hot and sweltering conditions.

Earlier, umpires K Hariharan and T K Handu made two inspections, after a scheduled start was ruled out because of the damp underfoot conditions before deciding that the match would start at 1:40 pm, a delay of three and a half hours.

Play has been extended for one hour beyond the scheduled close to make up for lost time.