- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA continued with their strong show in the second warm-up game ahead of their campaign in the T20 World Cup when they thumped Australia by eight wickets at the ICC Academy Ground in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. On Wednesday, they beat England by seven wickets in their first warm-up game.
Australia had a bad start to their innings after captain Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bat. He himself failed to score big (8 off 10 balls) while his opening partner David Warner managed just one off seven balls. They were reduced to 11 for 3 when Steven Smith (57 off 48) and Glenn Maxwell (37 off 28) added 61 runs in eight overs. After Maxwell fell, Marcus Stoinis (41 not out off 25) added 76 runs with Smith in just eight overs to help the 2010 runners-up finish at 152 for 5 in 20 overs.
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For India, Ravichandran Ashwin took two wickets while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja and Rahul Chahar took one wicket each. Captain Virat Kohli also bowled two overs but did not get a wicket.
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India never looked uncomfortable in chasing down the runs. Openers KL Rahul (39 off 31) and Rohit Sharma (60 off 41) added 68 runs below 10 overs. After Rahul got dismissed, Suryakumar Yadav (38 not out off 27) added 59 with Sharma to take India close to their target. Hardik Pandya came in at No.4 to score a brisk 14 not out off just eight balls to take his team home with almost three overs to spare. Australia used eight bowlers but only Ashton Agar got a wicket. Sharma retired out.
India will next play Pakistan in their first match of the tournament in Dubai on Sunday (24). Australia will lock horns with South Africa in their first match in Abu Dhabi on Saturday (23).
