India A tour of South Africa 2013: Maxwell blitzkrieg takes Australia A past India A

Glenn Maxwell scored a breathtaking 145* of 79 deliveries

Australia A defeated India A by seven runs in the second 50 overs match of the tri-nation tournament in South Africa.

Australian openers Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch fell early with Jaydev Unadkat and Mohammed Shami picking up one wicket each to reduce the Aussies to 36-2 in 9 overs.

Alex Doolan and Nic Maddinson helped Australia recover from the mini setback by putting together 84 runs in 101 balls for the 3rd wicket.

With the front line bowlers not able to pick wickets and Australia threatening to run away with the game, Indian captain Cheteshwar Pujara introduced part time bowlers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan.

Incidentally, both of them picked wickets as Raina got rid of Doolan to break the good partnership while Dhawan went one step better in getting two more Australian wickets, that of Maddinson and Tim Paine, in only his second over.

Shahbaz Nadeem returned after a disappointing first spell of 3-0-26-0 to inflict further damage by adding two wickets to his tally before the start of batting powerplay. In a space of 10.3 overs, Australia’s score went from 120-2 to 152-8. Pujara, in an attempt to dismiss the tail, brought back his fast bowlers.

Glenn Maxwell, coming in at No.7, had different ideas though. Combining with Josh Hazlewood, Maxwell plundered 146 runs in the last 13.4 overs, capitalising on India’s familiar death bowling woes, to take Australia to 298-8 in 50 overs. Having scored 145 of 79 balls, Maxwell remained unbeaten.

India in reply started off well though going past 100 in 20.1 overs, despite Dhawan and Pujara not being able to convert their starts, with Rohit Sharma staying solid at one end.

Rohit Sharma was run out by Doolan for 66 of 87 deliveries. However, that did not affect Raina as he continued to carry on playing in his own aggressive style completing his half century in 54 balls, in the company of Ambati Rayudu.

The fourth wicket partnership of 85 runs came at a quick pace of just 74 deliveries. Raina was dismissed for a well made 83 of 79 with India A needing 63 runs in 47 balls. Rayudu on 34* of 34, sensing the tricky situation, shifted gears. However, flurry of late wickets in the last three overs triggered by some disciplined effort from Australian bowlers at death, unlike their Indian counterparts, restricted India-A to 291-8.

India fell short by 7 runs as Rayudu’s knock of 70 runs went in vain.