Thaindian News

Melbourne, Feb 5 (IANS) Attacking fifties by Matthew Wade and David Hussey helped Australia set a daunting 217-run target against India in the ODI tri-series opener here Sunday, following heavy rain which reduced the match to 32 overs a side.

Wade struck 67 while Hussey’s 61 off 30 balls further pushed Australia to 216 for five from a struggling 35 for two in 11 overs before intermittent rain stopped play for around three hours.

David’s elder brother Mike contributed 45 off 32 balls as Australia amassed 121 runs in 21 overs post the break. Indian spinners were hammered all over the park after seamers R. Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar kept things tight early on. The Indians were set a revised 217-run target as per the Duckworth-Lewis method.

The spinners’ lacklustre effort was summed up best when David counted for most of the 19 runs in the last over bowled under confusion by Rahul Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja.

Leg-spinner Sharma (1-44) was removed after two balls when the umpires realised that he had already completed his quota of six overs. Under the circumstances, only two bowlers were allowed to bowl seven overs. IPL’s latest millionaire Jadeja was brought for the final four balls and his bad day was made worse by David, who smashed him for two sixes over deep midwicket. The Indian all-rounder ended up with figures of 41 in 2.4 overs.

David also enjoyed batting against offie Ravichandran Ashwin, who went for 48 in five overs. His quick-fire innings comprised three sixes and four boundaries.

Wade took control of the proceedings in the earlier part of the innings, hitting four down the ground and two over the ropes in his 69-ball knock.

Earlier, Fast bowler Vinay Kumar (3/21), who was bought for $1 million in the IPL auction back home Saturday, bowled with discipline initially and was rewarded with the wickets of dangerous David Warner (6) and Ricky Ponting (2).