BARBADOS: Australia ruthlessly ended India’s winning streak while maintaining its own as it beat the opponent by 49 runs, in the teams’ opening Super Eights match.
In the first innings, David Warner smashed a rapid 72 as Australia piled up 184 for five.
Australia were given a blistering start by left-hander Warner and fellow opener Shane Watson (54) who put on a total 104 for the first wicket in 11 overs after India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss.
Warner faced just 41 balls and struck seven of the innings's 16 sixes.
Given such a start, India did well to restrict Australia to under 200.
Left-arm spinner Yuvraj Singh (two wickets for 20 runs) checked Australia's progress. He had Warner well caught by wicketkeeper Dhoni and the duo combined again as Brad Haddin was stumped.
Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who started the match with a maiden, a remarkable achievement in view of what followed, conceded just 15 runs from his four overs.
But Australia's openers were severe on left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, whose two overs went for 38.
Shane Watson went to his fifty with a six off a Yusuf Pathan long-hop before he was bowled next ball to end a 32-ball innings featuring six sixes and a solitary four.
On the Indian end, the team was able to muster up a total of 135 in total. More than half this score was made by Rohit Sharma who scored 79 runs.
Other than Sharma and Harbhajan Singh, who scored 13 runs, none of the other batsmen were even allowed to enter double digits.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ