Captain Usman Khawaja and his opening partner Joe Burns smashed scintillating centuries as Australia A thrashed a hapless India A by a massive 119 runs in the second tri-series match here on Friday.
Khawaja and Burns continued their top form as they sent the Indian bowlers to a leather hunt in their knocks of 100 and 154 respectively, sharing 239 runs from 35.5 overs in their opening stand, to help Australia A post a mammoth 334 for 4 after electing to bat at the M A Chidambaram Stadium.
The Indians produced a spineless show in all departments of the game as their bowlers were first steamrolled by Khawaja and Burns during the Australia A innings and then the home team batsmen fell far short of reaching the stiff target of 335 as they were bundled out for just 215 in 42.3 overs.
The Australians maintained their wicket to wicket bowling and the impatient Indian batsmen paid the price of chasing short-pitched deliveries. The wicket appeared to offer good bounce throughout the day but the host batsmen were to be blamed for failing to make a mark as the majority of them were out due to wrong shot selections.
The bowling frailties of the home side were exposed badly as Khawaja and Burns made a mincemeat of them, scoring runs almost at will and denying the Indians any success till the 36th over.
When Khawaja, who was also in great touch in the unofficial Test series against India A, was out for 100 after hitting 10 fours and three sixes from 104 balls, the visiting side were well on course for a huge total.
leg-spinner Karn Sharma bore the brunt of the assault from the Australia A openers as he bled 58 runs from his five overs before being taken off. Off-spinner Parveez Rasool and pacer Dhawal Kulkarni were also taken to task as they conceded 57 and 70 runs from their seven and 10 overs respectively. Kulkarni got one scalp while Rasool went wicketless. Sandeep Sharma, Axar Patel and Karun Nair also got a wicket apiece.
Kulkarni, Zampa engage in verbal altercation
Kulkarni was involved in a verbal altercation with Australia A leg-spinner Adam Zampa at the fag end of the home team’s mammoth chase of 335 runs.
The incident happened during the 41st over of India A’s chase when Zampa was bowling his 10th and last over.
Interestingly, the matter dragged on to the next over when some close-in Australian fielders were seen exchanging words with Kulkarni and India’s last man Sandeep Sharma, eventually forcing the on field umpires to intervene and douse the matter.
Asked Zampa about the incident, he said: “It was something that happened on the field. Obviously, I was a bit fired up. Cricket is a game which should be played in the spirit. To me what the Indian players were doing was quite disappointing and couple of instances were not in the spirit of the game.”
Burns, who was party to the incident, said such verbal confrontations are part and parcel of the game. “I guess when teams are playing for their country they are going to be passionate in the game. I will be disappointed if both the teams do not play to win,” he said.
He, however, said both the parties involved never crossed the line. “Zampa answered it. It didn’t cross the line. You have to move on and focus on the next game.”
Australian captain Usman Khawaja and his opening partner Burns smashed scintillating centuries as Australia A thrashed a hapless India A by a massive 119 runs.
Brief Scores:
Australia A: 334/4 in 50 overs (Joe Burns 154, Usman Khawaja 100; Sandeep Sharma 1/42) beat India A: 215 in 42.3 overs (Unmukt Chand 52, Kedar Jadhav 50; Gurinder Sandhu 4/28, Adam Zampa 4/49) by 119 runs.