Karthik, Yadav destroy Australia

Umesh Yadav wreaked havoc with a five-wicket haul after Dinesh Karthik hit a sublime unbeaten hundred as India demolished Australia by 243 runs in their final Champions Trophy warm-up match here today.

Yadav took five for 18 as Australia collapsed to 34 for six wickets by the end of the 12th over and were eventually bowled out for a paltry 65 in 23.3 overs.
Gangly paceman Ishant Sharma supported Yadav well by taking three wickets for just 11 runs in his five overs.

Before that, India rattled up a challenging 308 for six as Karthik smashed an unbeaten 146 and added 211 runs for the sixth wicket with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (91).
India scored exactly 100 runs in their last 10 overs as Australia failed to turn the screws after polishing off five top Indian wickets for only 55 runs at the Swalec Stadium.

It was India's second consecutive win, having beaten Sri Lanka earlier and it gives them the confidence ahead of their tournament-opener against South Africa on Thursday.

Yadav bowled at the right lengths as Australian batsmen played loose strokes too early in the innings. Matthew Wade (5) and Phil Hughes (14) were bowled playing across the line to fuller balls while David Warner (0) was caught at first slip playing an expansive drive.

Australia missed their injured captain Michael Clarke as stand-in skipper George Bailey (1) was beaten by pace and late movement while the in-form Shane Watson (4) dragged the ball onto his stumps while trying to cut.

Mitchell Marsh (0) got a faint inside edge that landed in the keeper's gloves as the Australian procession confounded pundits of the game.

Except Hughes and Adam Voges (23 off 49 balls), none of the top seven batsmen got into double digits.

Earlier, Like India's first warm-up game, the lower middle-order batsmen saved the blushes with both Karthik and Dhoni magnificently pacing their innings on a track that had plenty for the batsmen. Their stand came off 191 balls.

Karthik faced 140 balls and hit 17 fours and a six while Dhoni took 77 balls for his knock, laced with 10 boundaries, including four sixes.

Karthik's back-to-back centuries, he scored an unbeaten 106 in Birmingham against Sri Lanka, will help him improve his chances for a slot in the playing XI when begin their campaign on Thursday.

The quality of the Australian attack was always going to be a challenge and India’s top batsmen failed to take the fight into the enemy camp after Dhoni opted to bat.

Predictably, Australia unleashed their fast bowlers with Mitchell Starc and Clint McKay doing the early damage with two wickets apiece in their first spells.

Except for Murali Vijay, who was unlucky to be ruled out LWB after getting a faint edge (there is no DRS in warm-up games), India’s top batsmen paid for poor shot selection.
In a warm-up game, it was important to spend time in the middle but India's young turks preferred flamboyance over pragmatism.

Kohli, basking in the glory of his 120-ball 144 against Sri Lanka in the first warm-up game, made a telling start. The Delhi batsman on-drove Starc for a classy boundary off the third ball he faced.

Kohli was quickly growing in confidence, cleverly finding gaps towards the Cardiff Castle side that had the longer boundaries. In consecutive matches, he ran four singles and seemed to be in good nick till his luck ran out. Flicking a Starc delivery outside the leg stump, Kohli edged to keeper Matthew Wade, scoring 9 off 12 balls.

India lost Rohit Sharma (10 off 14 balls) and Suresh Raina (0) in quick succession. At the end of the 10th over, India plummeted to 39 for four.