A disciplined bowling performance in the final against Australia A led India A to victory in the tri-nation series played in South Africa. Cheteshwar Pujara’s boys avenged their double defeat against Australia in the league stage with a 50-run win in the final at the LC de Villiers Oval on Wednesday.
Having won the toss, India put up 243 runs on the board in 49.2 overs. The in-form Shikhar Dhawan (62) and Dinesh Karthik (73) laid the foundation for the decent score. The strong Australia A batting lineup was expected to chase the total down on a wicket that was conducive to batting. However, after an incredible collapse, they folded for 193 in 46.3 overs.
Pacer Mohammed Shami (2 for 30) removed openers Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh early before left arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (3 for 34) cleaned up the tail. Suresh Raina, Ishwar Pandey and Parvez Rasool picked up a wicket each.
The men from down under faltered in their chase and were reeling at 88 for seven. Tim Paine (47) and Josh Hazlewood (30) saved their team the embarrassment but were not able to pull off the herculean task.
Earlier, before Dhawan and Karthik steadied the Indian innings with a 108-run stand for the third wicket, they were in trouble, having lost Rohit Sharma (6) and captain Cheteshwar Pujara (1) for 34 runs in the sixth over.
Dhawan, fresh from his record-breaking 248 in the last match, against South Africa A, motored along nicely for his half-century. His first shot was a drive fetching him four runs. He went on to hit nine exquisite boundaries until he was caught behind off medium pacer Moises Henriques.
Karthik look fluent too, for his first fifty of the tournament. He was eventually bowled by speedster Nathan Coulter-Nile, making it 158 for four in 28.1 overs.
The left- and right-hand combination had laid the foundation for a 250-plus score. However, Australia pulled things back by picking up the last four wickets for 14 runs.
Brief scores: India 243 all out in 49.2 overs (Dhawan 62, Karthik 73; Hazlewood 3-31, Coulter-Nile 3-35). Australia 193 all out in 46.3 overs (Paine 47, Hazlewood 30; Shami 2-30, Nadeem 3-34).
