T20 World Cup

Australian thrashed India by 49 runs, in the teams’ opening Super Eights match in the World Twenty20 at the Kensington Oval here on Friday.

Brief Scores:

Australia: 184-5 off 20 overs (S. Watson 54, D. Warner 72)

India: 135 off 17.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 79 not out)

MAN OF THE MATCH: David Warner

Opting to bat first, Australia set a 185 run target which India fails to keep the track moving as they loose the wickets at regular intervals.

Australian player, Warner puts an impressive innings that calculates a total of about 184 for five that builds around his first wicket stand of 104 in 11 overs in partnership with Shane Watson, who scored 54 runs.

However, India lost the track and collapsed with 23/4 at five overs as the batsmen’s fails to keep the momentum.

India was eventually bowled out for 135, though Rohit Sharma managed to score 79 not out and tail ender Harbhajan Singh took 13 runs.

Both the teams will continue their bid for a semi-final spot here on Sunday, as India will be facing West Indies and Australia will play with Sri Lanka.

Comments:

Watson started it off but the things fell into place for me and I did well to cash in. The breeze was helping us as well. At the 16th over, I thought we would cross 200 but I thought 180 odd was more than defendable with our bowling attack. Hopefully the wicket would stay the same, it has suited us perfectly.”Says Warner

“First class performance by the boys, these conditions helped our fast bowlers a lot more. We executed our plans perfectly but the important thing is to continue to win. We’ve got SL and WI coming up, important to keep things simple and keep winning.” Says Clark

“It all started with a couple of overs which started with 40 odd runs which we conceded. Watson and Warner took the game away from us, but to restrict them to 180 was a good effort by the bowlers. Most teams looks to bounce us out but the batsmen were caught trying to hook and pull. This has upset our run-rate, we now just have to look forward to win the next 2 games, can’t think too much of the run rate at this stage.” Says MS Dhoni

Teams

Australia - DA Warner, SR Watson, MJ Clarke*, DJ Hussey, CL White, MEK Hussey, BJ Haddin†, SPD Smith, MG Johnson, SW Tait, DP Nannes.

India - M Vijay, G Gambhir, SK Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni*†, YK Pathan, RG Sharma, RA Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, A Nehra.