Australia beat India by nine wickets

Australia, in the first inning, restricted India to 140-7.

COLOMBO: Australia beat India by nine wickets in their World Cup Twenty20 Super Eight match in Colombo on Friday.

Earlier, Shane Watson and Pat Cummins shared five wickets as Australia restricted India to 140-7.

Watson finished with 3-34 to lead Australia's bowling attack after Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat on a slow wicket at the Premadasa stadium.

Makeshift opener Irfan Pathan top-scored with 31, while Suresh Raina boosted the total towards the end with 26 off 19 balls.

Raina put on 30 for the sixth wicket with Dhoni and 33 for the seventh with Ravichandran Ashwin, who remained unbeaten on 16 off 12 balls.

India dropped seasoned opener Virender Sehwag to play five specialist bowlers, including three spinners, and sent all-rounder Pathan to open the innings with Gautam Gambhir.

Pathan hit two fours and a six, but India lost three wickets in seven balls to slip from a comfortable 70-2 to 74-5.

Watson claimed two wickets in one over, forcing Yuvraj Singh to hole out in the deep before getting Pathan caught in the covers.

Australia: George Bailey (capt), David Warner, Shane Watson, Matthew Wade, Michael Hussey, Cameron White, Daniel Christian, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI) and Richard Kettleborough (ENG)

TV umpire: Ian Gould (ENG)

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)