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Chawla destroys Australian middle order as India state their World Cup credentials

India 214 Australia 176

Colin Crompton
Monday 14 February 2011 01:00 GMT
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Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh spun India to a convincing 38-run World Cup warm-up win over Australia here yesterday. Opener Virender Sehwag top-scored with 54 as India set their opponents a target of just 215, Brett Lee taking three wickets.

But Australia were unable to get close despite captain Ricky Ponting's half-century as Chawla and Harbhajan combined for seven wickets.

Sehwag lost opening partner Gautam Gambhir at the start of the fourth over, the left-hander edging Doug Bollinger to Cameron White, but rebuilt in a stand of 42 with Virat Kohli (21).

The middle order offered little but Yusuf Pathan hit two sixes in his 32 and Ravichandran Ashwin's patient 25 not out, including a last-wicket stand of 27 with Ashish Nehra (19), proved vital.

Lee's 10 overs yielded 3 for 35 and John Hastings and David Hussey also made inroads. Australian openers Shane Watson (33) and Tim Paine (37) put on 51 and the latter added 67 for the second wicket with Ponting.

But once the captain was stumped off Harbhajan, the scene was set for Chawla to decimate the Australian middle order. The leg-spinner removed Michael Clarke and Hussey for ducks as well as White (four) and Callum Ferguson (eight) in the space of 23 balls for just seven runs on his way to overall figures of 4 for 31.

Mitchell Johnson was stumped as he attacked Harbhajan, who then removed Jason Krejza as Australia were dismissed for 176.

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