Piyush Chawla shines as India beat Australia in warm-up game
India beat Australia by 38 runs in a warm-up match ahead of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, scheduled to begin on 19 February, in Bangalore
The hosts batted first and reached 214 in 44.3 overs before they were bowled-out. In reply, Australia also failed to bat out their complete overs and were dismissed for 176 runs in the 38th over.
Indian Captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 won the toss and elected to bat first. The wicket was on the slower side and had quite a few cracks on it, which allowed the bowlers to dominate the game. Both Dhoni and Ricky Ponting were upset with the nature of the pitch.
India started their innings with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 got off to a good start but failed to capitalise. He was dismissed
after scoring a steady 21 runs off 33 balls.
Flamboyant middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh was then undone by a great delivery from Doug Bollinger. The left-handed batsman never looked comfortable at the crease and edged the ball into the hands of Tim Paine behind the stumps. The Indian captain then
joined Sehwag at the crease and the pair tried to steady the ship for their team. However, Dhoni was dismissed after struggling to score 11 runs off 24 balls.
Sehwag was the only batsman who looked comfortable at the crease. He scored a brilliant half-century before he was cleaned-up by the tall off-spinner Jason Krejza. Sehwag scored 54 runs off 56 balls. Brett Lee then jolted the Indian middle-order with three
wickets in just two overs, which left the hosts struggling at 138 for the loss of eight wickets.
It was once again Yusuf Pathan, who rescued his team from chaos. He scored 32 runs off 38 balls before he was caught at deep mid-wicket in an attempt to clear the ropes. Pathan got good support from Ashwin, who put together a 49-run partnership with the
flamboyant batsman. Cameos from Ashwin and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 take their total beyond 200.
Ashwin ran out of partners and remained unbeaten on 25 whereas Nehra was the last man to be dismissed after he had scored 19 runs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lee-c72382 was the pick of the Australian bowlers as he took three wickets in the match. He got good support from David Hussey and
John Hastings, who both grabbed two wickets each.
Australian openers Tim Paine and Shane Watson got the Australian innings off to a good start as they gave their team a 51-run partnership. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 was out after scoring promising 33 runs off just 26 balls. This brought the Australian captain at the crease
and he managed a 67-run stand with Paine for the second wicket. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 were looking in a very good position to win the match, but the middle-order collapsed to give India an easy victory.
Paine got out after scoring 37 runs off 57 balls. Ponting top scored in the innings with 57 runs but was out attempting to play a slog sweep off Harbhajan Singh. Australia lost nine wickets for just 58 runs, courtesy some devastating spin bowling from Harbhajan
and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Piyush-c82317 Chawla. Mitchell Johnson was the only other batsman apart from the top-three players to reach double figures. He scored 15 runs in his short innings.
Chawla took four wickets for 31 runs in the match, while Harbhajan ended-up with figures of three for 15.
Tags: