Walk in the park
The Indians hammered Australia XI by 243 runs in a Champions Trophy warm-up match after skittling out the defending champions for just 65 in Cardiff on Tuesday.
Umesh Yadav did the bulk of the damage, taking the first five wickets to fall in a stunning return of 5/18 in just five overs.
Meanwhile fellow paceman Ishant Sharma bagged 3/11 against an Australia side where Shane Watson was dropped down the order despite his hundred in a warm-up match against the West Indies.
Only two Australian batsmen Adam Voges (23) and Phil Hughes (14) made it into double figures, with the innings all wrapped up in the 24th over.
“It was a disappointing game, I’m not sure how we’ll react to it,” said George Bailey, captaining the Australia side in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke.
“It was certainly not the way we wanted to play but if you are going to have a game like that, you may as well have it in a practice game.”
Earlier, world champions India XI collapsed to 55/5 before Dinesh Karthik revived the innings with a superb 146 not out, adding 211 for the fifth wicket with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (91) to get the side to a total of 308/6.
“It was really well batted by Dinesh and M.S., we couldn’t quite get the sixth and seventh wickets to really nail that innings off,” Bailey said.
“Two new balls is challenging, you saw that with both sides losing their top-order cheaply, in English conditions.”
Dhoni was delighted by the form of Karthik, his understudy as wicket-keeper, and said he was now set to play as a batsman only when India open the tournament proper against South Africa in Cardiff on Thursday.
“Well, to start off Dinesh batted really well. That partnership between me and him got us to a respectable score and then the bowling was up to the mark.
“I think he has earned his place in the side and we’ll just have to see who misses out when we play against South Africa. I’d like him to play at the top of the order but we’ll see,” Dhoni added before turning to his attack.
“We used five bowlers and all of them got wickets. Umesh is one of the quickest bowlers we have and with the two paced pitch here, the ball was holding up, not much, but just enough which was why there were so many inside edges.”
This was Karthik’s second century, albeit in warm-up matches, after his unbeaten 106 against Sri Lanka on June 1. “I’ve been hitting the ball really well,” Karthik said. “When you come in at six, it’s important to assess the situation. When you have Dhoni around it’s important to rotate the strike.
“It was a good bowling attack, and it feels good to get some runs. I have had a good IPL and it’s important to keep the same momentum from that.”
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