Colombo: India could not have started their Super Eights campaign of the T20 World cup one a worse note than this as they crashed to a humiliating nine wickets defeat against Australia at the R Premadasa Stadium here on Friday.
Australia chasing a target of 141 rode on a brilliant opening partnership of 113 by Shane Watson (72) and David Warner (63*) to wrap the match with 5.1 overs to spare. This is India’s second worst defeat in terms of balls left and it might make things difficult for them if run-rate comes into consideration for the semi-finals qualification.
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Brief score:
Australia 141 for 1 (Watson 72, Warner 63*) beat India 140 for 7 (Pathan 31, Watson 3-34) by 9 wickets
Match facts:
Toss: India, chose to bat
India:
Powerplay: 50, 1 wicket (0-6 overs)
4’s: 15, 6’s: 2
Australia:
Powerplay: 47, 0 wicket (0-6 overs)
4’s: 9, 6’s: 10
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to drop swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag and accommodate five bowlers proved fatal for India.
Australia coming onto chase a comfortable target of 141 got off to great start and whacked R Ashwin for nine runs in the first over of the match. It was no looking back for them after that. They sent India bowlers to leatherhunt.
Indian spin trio of Piyush Chawla, Irfan Pathan and R Ashwin were taken to the cleaners as they failed to get anything out of the pitch which generally supports the spinners.
Defending such a small total Indian bowlers were expected to bowl with much discipline, but they kept of bowling loose deliveries much to the liking of Warner and Watson.
India finally had a moment of success, when Watson was caught in the covers by substitute fielder Manoj Tiwary of Yuvraj Singh’s bowling. The wicket not only gave India something to cheer about after such battering, it also avoided them from crashing to their first ever 10 wickets defeat in the shortest format of the game.
Watson struck two boundaries and seven sixes in his innings which lasted for 42 balls. By the time he was done, damage was already been done and Warner along with Glen Maxwell wrapped up the affair. Warner played a perfect second fiddle to his opening partner and his 41 deliveries knock was laced with seven fours and three sixes.
For India it was the veteran Zaheer Khan who showed some intent with the ball and even though he did not get any wickets bowled a tight line and ended with a spell of 24-0 in his stipulated four overs.
Earlier India electing to bat first missed the services of Sehwag dearly and none of the batters could take the challenge to the oppositions.
Makeshift opener Irfan Pathan was the highest scorer for India with 31 but then he exhausted too many deliveries for that. His knock came off 30 balls and was laced with two fours and a six.
Watson was the stand-out performer with the ball and returned with figures of 3-34, while Pat Cummins took two wickets by giving away just 16 runs.
Watson was named the man of the match for his all round performance.
By Indian Sports News Network