Adelaide: India’s preparations for the cricket World Cup suffered a jolt as Australia thrashed the defending champions by 106 runs with Glenn Maxwell and David Warner striking blistering centuries in their first warm-up game here on Sunday.
Electing to bat at the Adelaide Oval in a match where the two teams used their full 15-member squads, the hosts rode on Warner’s 104 and Maxwell’s 57-ball 122 to put up a mammoth 371 all out in 50 overs. Warner made his runs off 83 balls.
The hard-hitting Maxwell smashed 11 boundaries and eight towering sixes. Warner found the fence 14 times and cleared it twice.
India were then bowled out for 265 in 45.1 overs to give the hosts another morale-boosting win ahead of the quadrennial event, starting Saturday.
Ajinkya Rahane top-scored for the visiting side with a 52-ball 66, while Shikhar Dhawan (59) and Ambati Rayudu (53) too made half centuries.
But their efforts proved to be too less as the rest of the batsmen crumbled in the face of some aggressive bowling by the Aussies on a surface that looked pretty good for batting.
Pacer Pat Cummins was the most successful bowler for Australia as he returned figures of three for 30, while there were two wickets apiece for Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood.
Still in his comeback trail in international cricket following a month-long sabbatical due to a hamstring injury, 33-year-old pace spearhead Johnson had impressive figures of two for 26.
The star-studded Indian batting line-up that includes the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni all failed to impress.
So was the case with all-rounder Stuart Binny and Ravindra Jadeja who were also smashed by the Australian batsmen.
It was not just the batsmen but the bowlers too performed badly, leaking too many runs courtesy some wayward bowling in the day-night game.
Earlier, Warner and Maxwell smashed strokeful centuries to help Australia post a daunting total against a hapless Indian bowling attack.
Maxwell’s stay in the middle came to an end when he retired out.
Warner hit the aggressive button from the very start as the left-hander smashed the Indian bowlers to every corner of the park.
Opening the Indian bowling, medium-pacer Stuart Binny (1/41) gave them the first breakthrough in Aaron Finch (20) but Warner was unstoppable at the other end.
Injured Ishant Sharma’s replacement in the World Cup squad, Mohit Sharma (2/62) got Shane Watson (22) back in the pavilion and Steven Smith (1) was cleaned up by Umesh Yadav to stop the Australian surge.
Warner though still carried on in the same vein only to picked up left-arm spinner Axar Patel (1-47) in the 27th over and Australia were already 185 for four.
Maxwell then took over and stitched a 91-run sixth-wicket stand with Mitchell Marsh (21).
In between captain George Bailey also hit a useful 44 before being scalped by Mohammed Shami (3/83), who bagged three wickets but was expensive in his 9.2 overs.
But Maxwell it was who made all the eight Indian bowlers look ordinary, hitting 11 fours and eight sixes with a strike rate of 214.03.
Umesh proved to be India’s most economical bowler with figures of two for 52 in his nine overs. (PTI)
