India defeat Western Australia XI in warm-up match
The Indian side is preparing for the T20 World Cup 2022 extensively, and in order to strengthen their practice, they played an exhibition match against the Western Australia XI on Monday, October 10 at the WACA Ground in Perth. Though it was just a practice match, it still ended as a close contest and the Men in Blue won the game by 13 runs.
While the Indian side was led by regular skipper Rohit Sharma, the Western Australia XI was led by Ashton Turner. Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. The Indian team did not have the services of Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, and KL Rahul and thus, Rohit Sharma opened the innings alongside Rishabh Pant.
India’s start was not up to the mark, as Jason Behrendorff struck twice in the powerplay to dismiss skipper Rohit Sharma for a very poor score of 3(4) followed by Deepak Hooda who walked back scoring a quick 22(14). Hooda’s wicket brought the in-form Suryakumar Yadav into the game, who then took India’s innings like a lone warrior.
Just after the powerplay, Rishabh Pant lost his wicket as all-rounder Hardik Pandya joined hands with Yadav. The duo shared a 49-run stand for the fourth wicket before Matthew Kelly picked up Pandya’s wicket. Suryakumar Yadav anchored the innings in the middle and brought up his half-century before being dismissed.
Dinesh Karthik, India’s designated player for the finishing role, added the final touch to the innings and even Axar Patel chipped in towards the end as India finished their innings scoring 158/6. The target was not that big, but players of Western Australia had to struggle till the end as they looked for a win against India.
Indian bowlers shine in the powerplay
Their chase was a nightmare as the Indian pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh rejoiced after picking up the early wickets. Kumar struck in the very first over to dismiss D’Arcy Short, and Arshdeep Singh picked up two big wickets in the very first over of his spell to take down the hosts’ top order within no time.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned for his next in the third over of the game and added another scalp under his name in the form of Ashton Turner as India took the upper hand in the contest. Cameron Bancroft and Sam Fanning got the game going thereon and kept Western Australia’s hopes alive. Yuzvendra Chahal broke the partnership late in the 10th over as the hosts were reduced to 57/5 at the halfway mark.
Fanning was unstoppable, as he went on to amass a half-century and tried chasing down the majority of the required target. Youngster Arshdeep Singh returned for the remaining overs of his spell and broke the momentum as he sent Fanning packing. Harshal Patel was expensive yet again, going for runs in his final over, but the Indian bowlers held their nerves and restricted the opponents from chasing the total to win the game by 13 runs.
