India hammered Australia 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, who joined the squad late following his recent marriage, took the first five wickets to fall in a stunning return of 5 for 18 in just five overs.
Meanwhile, fellow paceman Ishant Sharma bagged 3 for 11, including Shane Watson, who scored a hundred for Australia in their warm-up match against the West Indies.
Only two Australia 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 Australia 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 collapsed to 55 for five, 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 for six.
Dhoni was delighted by the form of Karthik, his understudy as wicketkeeper, and said he was now set to play as a batsman only when India open the tournament proper against South Africa in Cardiff today.
“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 said.
“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,” he added.
This was Karthik’s second century, albeit in warm-up matches, after his unbeaten 106 against Sri Lanka on Saturday.
Australia were without Clarke because of a recurrence of a longstanding back injury.
WEST INDIES V SRI LANKA
AFP, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND
The West Indies completed their Champions Trophy preparations with a 17-run win over Sri Lanka in a warm-up match at Edgbaston on Tuesday.
Both sets of batsmen spent time in the middle, with West Indies making 297 for six, before Sri Lanka were dismissed for 280.
Dwayne Bravo (71), Johnson Charles (58) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (55) provided the bulk of the West Indies’ runs, while Kumar Sangakkara (56) top-scored for Sri Lanka.
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