India T20 World Cup practice match: Suryakumar, Arshdeep, Bhuvneshwar help India win against Western Australia

Superb bowling spells from pacers Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and a half-century from in-form Suryakumar Yadav powered India to a 13-run win over Western Australia in their ICC T20 World Cup warm-up match on Monday. With this win in Australian conditions, India’s T20 WC preparations have got a big boost. Though batting was underwhelming to an extent, bowlers performed brilliantly to calm down some talks about the side’s recent issues with the ball. Chasing 159, Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar got wickets of D’arcy Short and Ashton Turner while Arshdeep Singh also got two wickets. In the six overs of powerplay, Western Australia was at 29/4. Yuzvendra Chahal got the fifth wicket for India and WA was reduced to 68/5 in 11 overs. Sam Fanning kept the other end steady while Hamish McKenzie also kept the scoreboard ticking. Fanning hit his half-century but was dismissed for 59 by Arshdeep Singh. Two more wickets fell as the game went ahead. Ultimately, the equation bowled down to 32 runs in the last over. Western Australia finished at 145/8 in 20 overs. Hamish ended with a score of 17. Arshdeep ended with three wickets under his belt, while Bhuvneshwar got two wickets. Chahal got two and Harshal Patel got a wicket each. Earlier, a gutsy half-century from in-form Suryakumar Yadav and cameos from Deepak Hooda and Hardik Pandya powered Team India to 158/6 in 20 overs in their practice match for ICC T20 World Cup 2022 against Western Australia in Perth on Monday. It was a sort of underwhelming outing for India with the bat as they kept losing big players at regular intervals. Some players did get starts but they could not capitalise. Electing to bat first, Team India was off to a shaky start as they lost their first wicket at a score of 15. Jason Behrendorff got the big wicket of captain Rohit Sharma, who could manage just three runs. Deepak Hooda was the next up on the crease, joining opener Rishabh Pant. He scored a quickfire 22 before Behrendorff removed him as well. At the end of the powerplay in six overs, India was at 39/2. In-form batter Suryakumar Yadav joined Pant. Medium-pacer Andrew Tye dismissed a struggling Pant for nine off 17 balls. India was at 45/3 in seven overs. Yadav was joined by Hardik Pandya and they helped Men in Blue cross the 50-run mark safely. Halfway through the innings, India was at 64/3 with Suryakumar at 16* and Hardik at 10*. The duo’s 49-run stand ended when pacer Matthew Kelly intervened to remove Pandya for 27 runs. Dinesh Karthik joined Suryakumar. By the time 15 overs concluded, India had crossed the 100-run mark and were at 108/4. Suryakumar Yadav continued his lethal run of form, bringing up his half-century. He departed immediately after crossing the landmark for 52 runs and India was at 129/5 in 17 overs. All eyes were on Karthik to finish off things on a great note. Team India concluded their innings at 158/6, with Karthik (19*) and Harshal Patel (6*) standing unbeaten. Jason Behrendorff had a very good outing with the ball.