Internet Desk : India started their tour of Australia with a win . The Indians clinched victory by 74 runs against Western Australia XI in the first warm-up T20 match at the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground in Perth on Friday.
Indian ODI and T20 captain, MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. The Men in blue did not get the greatest of starts, after Rohit Sharma ran himself out by LN O’ Conner in the third over. However a 149 runs partnership for the second wicket between Sikhar Dhawan(74) and Indian Test captain Virat Kohli (74) provided a strong base to the Indian innings. The partnership ended in the 17th over when Kohli was caught behind by Josh Inglis off Josh Nicholas. He struck seven fours and three sixes in his 44-ball knock. Dhawan too fell in the next over after hitting eight fours and three sixes in 46 deliveries. Dhoni’s quickfire 22 runs off 14 balls with 1 four and 2 big sixes towards the end of the innings as India posted a heathy total of 192 for four. Aussie bowlers, RM Duffield, J Nicholas and M Kelly took one wicket each.
Chasing the total, Western Australia lost wickets at regular intervals. Only Travis Birt making some notable contribution , scoring 74 from 60 balls while the two left-arm orthodox bowlers of India, Ravindra Jadeja (3-0-13-2) and Axar Patel (3-0-13-2) picked up a couple of wickets each. Dhoni used six bowlers resting Ishant Sharma for tomorrow’s warm-up one day match. Newcomer in the Indian team, 23-year-old left-arm pacer, Barinder Sran (4-0-24-2) bowled impressively to notch up figures of 2/24 from 4 overs. He scalped his first wicket with a short ball that hurried onto opener D’Arcy Short(5) and later dismissed the WA captain Will Bosisto(1) with another short delivery. But the inexperienced Western Australian squad never really got into the chase with six of their batsmen failing to score in double digits.
Brief Scores: India (192 for 4 in 20 overs) beat Western Australia XI (118 for 8 in 20 overs) by 74 runs.