India’s Super Eights campaign of the T20 World Cup could have started on a worse not than this as they suffered a humiliating nine-wicket loss against Australia at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Saturday.

India batting first missed the services of swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag dearly and batting first they could just limp to 140. The target never looked that challenging and it turned out to be so.

Australian openers Shane Watson and David Warner sent the Indian bowlers on leather-hunt and wrapped up the match with 5.1 overs remaining. The win now places India in a tricky situation and might create a problem for India if run-rate comes into consideration during the qualification for semis.

This was India second worst loss in terms of balls remaining and narrowly escaped their first 10 wicket defeat in T20 cricket.

Here are some of the hits and flops of the match:

Australia:

Hits:

Shane Watson: Watson has been in good form throughout the tournament with both bat and ball. First while bowling, he crippled Indian batting line-up with a three wicket haul and then it was his batting that never allowed India in the match. He was in his brutal best and carted Indian bowlers all over the park.  Watson scored a brilliant 72 off 42 deliveries which included two fours and seven sixes.

David Warner: Warner has always been harsh on the Indians and even on Saturday the story remained the same. He stitched a partnership of 133 for the first wicket with Watson. Warner scored an unbeaten 63 off 41 balls that was laced with seven fours and three sixes.

Pat Cummins: Cummins was the most economical Australian bowler in the match and bowled superb line and length. He ended with figures of 2-16 in four overs.

India:

Hits:

Zaheer Khan: He was the only Indian bowler who was shown respect by the marauding Aussies opener. On a day when, they were belting Indian bowlers at will, Zaheer showed intent and was gave away just 18 runs in three overs.

Flops:

Irfan Pathan: Even though he was good with the bat early on in the innings, it was bowling that let him down heavily in the match. He was supposed to be one the key bowlers for India but then could not live up to the expectations. He kept on bowling short deliveries outside leg and leaked many too many runs for his captain’s liking. He gave away 19 runs in his first over and was never handed the ball again in the match.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Mahendra Singh Dhoni came at the time when India were already reeling. He employed his defensive tactics and that affected the run rate further more. And when he tried to up the ante he lost his wicket. He scored 15 runs off 21 deliveries.

YuvraJ Singh: Yuvraj Singh has not contributed much with the bat in the league stage and the story remained the same in the last match as well. Yuvraj Singh never looked comfortable against the Australian attack and could manage only eight runs of 10 deliveries.

The three spinners: MS Dhoni had opted to play with three spinners, including Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin and Piyush Chawla. But his trump cards failed miserably against the marauding Australians as Shane Watson and David Warner went after them so hard hard that Dhoni had to call in his part timers to finish up the overs.

By Indian Sports News Network