Adelaide, Feb 9: India’s preparations for the cricket World Cup suffered a jolt as Australia thrashed the defending champions by 106 runs with Glenn Maxwell and David Warner striking blistering centuries in their first warm-up game here on Sunday.
Electing to bat at the Adelaide Oval in a match where the two teams used their full 15-member squads, the hosts rode on Warner’s 104 and Maxwell’s 57-ball 122 to put up a mammoth 371 all out in 50 overs. Warner made his runs off 83 balls.
The hard-hitting Maxwell smashed 11 boundaries and eight towering sixes. Warner found the fence 14 times and cleared it twice. India were then bowled out for 265 in 45.1 overs to give the hosts another morale-boosting win ahead of the quadrennial event.
Ajinkya Rahane top-scored for the visiting side with a 52-ball 66, while Shikhar Dhawan (59) and Ambati Rayudu (53) too made half-centuries. But their efforts proved too less as the rest of the batsmen crumbled in the face of some aggressive bowling by the Aussies on a surface that looked pretty good for batting.
Pacer Pat Cummins was the most successful bowler for Australia as he returned figures of three for 30, while there were two wickets apiece for Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood.
Still in his comeback trail in international cricket following a month-long sabbatical due to a hamstring injury, 33-year-old pace spearhead Johnson had impressive figures of two for 26.
The star-studded Indian batting line-up that includes the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni failed to impress.
So was the case with all-rounder Stuart Binny and Ravindra Jadeja who were also smashed by the Australian batsmen.
‘It’s been tough to pick final XI’
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted that he is having a difficult time?in identifying his playing eleven for the high-voltage World Cup clash against arch-rivals Pakistan.
“It has been difficult for us. When the batsmen click, the bowlers don’t and when the bowlers do, the batsmen fail. We need to sort that out.
What’s important is that we have one more game in our hand and before playing Pakistan it would be good to have the first XI in our hand,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation. The Indian captain though said “there are plenty of positives in the game” for them.
Asked what he was looking at for identifying the final team, Dhoni said there were quite a few things to watch.
“It will depend on our utility cricketers. If the pitches remain as it is, we need our spinners to use the bounce more. It’s a very long tournament and what we have seen is the team that does well is the one that comes from the bottom and moves rapidly up,” he said.
?Speaking about his first ball dismissal against Australia in the warm-up match, he said,”I just played my shot with so many runs needed and the fielder up, but I never really thought it would go right to Starc.”
Australian captain George Bailey was naturally happy with his side’s performance.
“It was a great performance for us. I think you?can always improve. Early wickets?would be nice to blow the game out of the water. We’d like to have lost a few less wickets and I’d like?Starc to catch with both hands,” he said.
Score board
Australia
Warner b Axar 104
Finch c Kohli b Binny 20
Watson c Axar b Mohit 22
Smith b Yadav 1
Bailey c Jadeja b Shami 44
Maxwell (retired) 122
Marsh c Rahane b Yadav 21
Johnson c Mohit b Shami 19
Starc c Dhoni b Mohit 0
Cummins b Shami 5
Doherty (not out) 0
Extras: (B-2, LB-5, W-3, NB-3) 13
Total: (all out; 48.2 overs) 371
Fall of wickets: 1-62, 2-115, 3-120, 4-185, 5-227, 6-318, 7-345, 8-346, 9-371.
Bowling: Binny 6-0-41-1, Kumar 5-0-31-0, Shami 9.2-0-83-3, Yadav 9-1-52-2, Mohit 6-0-62-2, Ashwin 6-1-29-0, Axar 5-0-47-1, Jadeja 2-0-19-0.
INDIA
Rohit c Finch b Hazlewood 8
Dhawan c Starc b Johnson 59
Kohli b Starc 18
Rahane c Marsh b Cummins 66
Raina (run out) 9
Rayudu c Haddin b Hazlewood 53
Dhoni c Starc b Cummins 0
Binny b Johnson 5
Jadeja c Warner b Cummins 20
Axar (not out) 5
Ashwin c Cummins b Starc 1
Extras (LB-3, W-17, NB-1) 21
Total (all out, 45.1 overs) 265
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-53, 3-157, 4-172, 5-173, 6-173, 7-185, 8-254, 9-258.
Bowling: Starc 4.1-0-16-2, Johnson 6-0-26-2, Hazlewood 6-1-25-2, Marsh 6-0-38-0, Doherty 7-0-51-0, Maxwell 4-0-29-0, Watson 3-0-21-0, Cummins 6-1-30-3, Smith 3-0-26-0.
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