Bengaluru, Feb 13: Piyush Chawla engineered a dramatic 38-run win for India by taking four wickets in an ICC World Cup warm-up game against Australia today. The match, a day-night affair, was played at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Australia, who were chasing a target of 215 under lights, lost their last nine wickets for 58 runs as the Indians bowled them out for 176.
Earlier, MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the batting never really clicked. Barring Virender Sehwag (54) and some useful contributions down the order from Yusuf Pathan (32), R Ashwin (25*) and Ashish Nehra (19), the top order put in a disappointing show. Gautam Gambhir (6) was Doug Bollinger’s solitary wicket on the day, while Virat Kohli (21) and Dhoni (11) fell to pacer John Hastings. Brett Lee did most of the damage for the Aussies by picking up the wickets of Suresh Raina (12), Harbhajan Singh (4) and Piyush Chawla (0). And when Nehra fell to David Hussey in the 45th over, India’s innings folded at 214.
Australia began their reply in style with opener Shane Watson launching into Munaf Patel. The India bowler went for 22 runs off his first 2 overs and Australia, who reached the 50-run mark in just the eighth over, were off to a flier.
S Sreesanth then removed Watson (33 off 26) with the score at 51. But Ricky Ponting and Tim Paine kept the scoring rate up for Australia in the absence of Watson. The 100-run mark was breached in only the 18th over and Australia, the incumbent World Champions, looked set for a convincing win.
However, with the score at 118, Paine (37) was caught at long-on off Yuvraj Singh and the tide turned decisively in India’s favour from thereon. Dhoni brought Piyush Chawla back into the attack and the move paid immediate dividends. The legspinner dismissed Michael Clarke (0), Cameron White (4), David Hussey (0) and Callum Ferguson (8) to leave Australia tottering at 148/6 in 30.4 overs.
Ponting, having helped himself to a half-century, was the next to go courtesy a brilliant stumping by Dhoni off Harbhajan Singh. With the Aussie captain out of the way, India were well and truly on top. Harbhajan then accounted for Mitchell Johnson (15) and Jason Krezja (0), while R Ashwin bowled Brett Lee (1) to leave Australia stranded at 176/10 in 37.5 overs. A turning wicket had once again proved to be Australia’s undoing.
Brief scores: India 214 all out in 44.3 overs (V Sehwag 54, Y Pathan 32, Brett Lee 3/35) beat Australia 176 all out in 37.5 overs (Ricky Ponting 57, Piyush Chawla 4/31, Harbhajan Singh 3/15) by 38 runs
