Colombo: MS Dhoni’s five-bowler theory backfired heavily as Australia rode on Shane Watson’s all-round brilliance to crush India by nine wickets in a totally lop-sided Super Eights contest of the World T20 on Friday.
Australian pacers, led by Watson (3/34) and Pat Cummins (2/16) knocked the stuffing out of the Indian batsmen by restricting them to 140 for seven after being asked to bowl first.
Watson (72) and David Warner (63 not out) then sent the Indians on a leather hunt as they won the game with 5.1 overs to spare.
Watson decimated the Indian attack as he hit as many seven huge sixes in his superb knock, earning him his third Man-of-the-Match award in a row.
“An absolutely fantastic performance by Watto [Shane Watson] and Davey Warner, but some great bowling set it up. Patty [Cummins] was outstanding but we stuck to our plans very well. There’s not two better hitters in the world than [our openers],” said Aussie captain George Bailey, who wants and equally good performance in their next game against South Africa on Sunday.
On a pitch that was supposed to assist spin, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla were punished mercilessly by the Aussie openers, who added 133 for the first wicket.
After the batsmen flopped, the Indian bowlers needed to bowl in good areas, but did the exact opposite as they gifted one half-tracker after another.
The demoralising defeat will also affect the net run rate of the Indian team in case the qualification for semifinals become close; India have the worst NRR in their group.
“We need to analyse what really happened. We got off to a good start, but lost quick wickets and we were not in a good situation. We were 20 short,” Dhoni said after the match.
The skipper also blamed a short rain shower at the start of Australia’s chase. “The wet ball is not good for spinners… No spinner told me the ball did not slip out of [his] hands.” (PTI)