Press Trust of India
Perth, Jan 8: India started their limited-overs tour of Australia on a positive note, comprehensively beating a second-string Western Australia XI by 74 runs in a T20 warm-up game here Friday with Virat Kohli (74, 44b, 7×4, 3×6) and Shikhar Dhawan (74, 46b, 8×4, 3×6) striking fluent half centuries. But the man to impress was Barinder Sran (2/24) who bowled with a lot of zest and fire.
Batting first, India scored a healthy 192 for four in 20 overs with Dhawan and Kohli putting on 149 runs for the second wicket after Rohit Sharma (6) missed out on a run feast on a bouncy WACA wicket. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who promoted himself to No. 4, also hit a quickfire 22 (14b, 1×4, 2×6).
In reply, Western Australia XI could only manage 118/6 with Trevor Birt (74 n o, 60b, 11×4), the only player to offer some resistance.
Sran hit the right length, hurried the batsmen with short balls and also showed his skills of being able to swing the white kookaburra at a lively pace. He got opener Darcy Short (5) with a delivery that kicked up as the batsmen was hurried into playing a shot and an easy catch was taken by Ravi Ashwin at mid-wicket. Sran also got rival skipper Will Bosisto (1) with a delivery that reared up and forced the batsman to play a pull shot that went high.
Among other bowlers, left-arm spinners Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja had identical figures of 2/13 from three overs. In all, Dhoni used six bowlers resting Ishant Sharma for Saturday’s 50-over game.
Brief scores: India 192 for 4 (Virat Kohli 74, Shikhar Dhawan 74) beat Western Australia XI 118 for 6 (Trevor Birt 74 n o, Barinder Sran 2/24, Axar Patel 2/13, Ravindra Jadeja 2/13) by 74 runs.
