Watto and Warner secure easy win

Cricket365
September 28, 2012

India's plan to play five bowlers and drop a batsman backfired spectacularly against Australia on Friday, with the Aussies winning by nine wickets in Colombo and Shane Watson once again showing why he is the number one all-rounder in the world.

India, with their top order failing miserably and short of a batsman, could only post 140 for seven in their 20 overs, with Watson claiming three wickets and Pat Cummins two for 16 runs, as the slower wicket prevented India from getting going.

The Aussie openers didn't have a problem though, and scored all but eight runs together as Watson recorded 72 off 42 balls and David Warner ended the game unbeaten on 63, alongside Glenn Maxwell, who had little to do in the end.

There were still five overs to go once Australia's batsmen strolled off the field. Of the runs required, 60 came in sixes and nine other boundaries were struck, the spinners posing no problems for the in-form opening pair.

India, having won the toss and without Virender Sehwag in the side in order to add a fifth bowler, started decently enough, but were a man down with the score on 21 when Gautam Gambhir was run out.

Virat Kohli then came to the middle and added 15 runs in a partnership of 25 with Irfan Pathan, but in a rare failure for the youngster, he found himself well caught by Dan Christian off Pat Cummins with the score on 56.

Watson then came on to bowl his second over and took two quick wickets. Yuvraj was dismissed after miss-timing his pull and caught on the ropes, the pitch much slower than the batsmen would have liked.

Pathan, his score on 31, went two balls later, well caught by Cameron White with the score on 74. The first ball of the next over saw a fifth wicket fall, with Mitchell Starc bowling Rohit Sharma for one and leaving India deep in the mire.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has not been setting the world on fire with his strike rate of late, could only add 15 off 21 balls, and was eventually out when trying to force the pace off Cummins, holing out to George Bailey in the covers.

Spinner Ravi Ashwin came in and had an immediate effect, smashing a six, while Raina made sure the final over counted for some runs as he hit Watson for two boundaries off the first two balls.

Raina's luck ran out though as he fall trying to add a third four, miscuing it and hitting it to Glenn Maxwell at long off. This made Watson the highest wicket-taker in the tournament to date, on eight wickets.

The Aussies began their chase with a bang as Watson and Warner made light working of reaching the fifth over unscathed and going at eight per over. Watson hit Ashwin for two sixes in one over, taking advantage of the moisture on the ball after a short rain delay.

The pair continued the send the bowlers around the park and had no problems against the spinners, hitting Piyush Chawla for 14 in one over and then Warner hitting Harbhajan for consecutive sixes to move close to his fifty.

Pathan then tried to give Watson some short stuff, but it was meat and drink for the blonde basher and he whacked two massive sixes and then a four off the medium pacer to take his own score to fifty off 28 balls.

Warner lagged slightly behind but not by much, and he brought up his half century in the 13th over off 37 balls, which was positively pedestrian for him. But the Aussies were waltzing towards the finish line and needed only 17 more runs after the 13th over.

Watson was gutted to be unable to finish what he started, falling with only eight runs to go as he hit a Yuvraj delivery straight at Manoj Tiwary in the covers. Maxwell was sent in to wrap up proceedings.

India: Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Ravi Ashwin, Zaheer Khan

Australia: George Bailey, Shane Watson, David Warner, Mike Hussey, Cameron White, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade, Dan Christian, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Brad Hogg