India lose to Western Australia in practice match ahead of T20 World Cup

KL Rahul's 55-ball 74 and Ravichandran Ashwin's spell of 3/32 ended up in a losing cause as India went down to Western Australia XI by 36 runs in their second practice match ahead of the T20 World Cup at the W.A.C.A in Perth on Thursday.

WA XI lost Josh Philippe quite early in the innings after India won the toss and asked them to bat first. But D'Arcy Short and Nick Hobson took charge of the proceedings and put on a stand of 110 runs for the second wicket. Both batters were going all guns blazing and looked set to take them to a big total but Harshal Patel gave India a much-needed breakthrough as he dismissed Hobson in the 15th over of the innings.

The 28-year-old played an excellent knock as he scored 68 from 41 deliveries, including five fours and four huge sixes. India got another breakthrough in the very next over as D'Arcy Short was run out this time, with Patel finding himself in the midst of things once again.

With both set batters out, India was looking to put brakes on the scoring rate and they did that to perfection. Ashwin also claimed three wickets in the 16th over of the innings to derail WA XI's innings further. The fireworks from the Western Australia batters had completely stopped and they reached a total of 168/8 at the end of their innings.

The WA XI bowlers proved their mettle as they kept India under pressure right from the first over of the innings. Jason Behrendorff dismissed Rishabh Pant in the fifth over and India closed the Powerplay with just 29 runs on the board for the loss of one wicket.

The WA XI bowlers kept making it tougher for India by claiming wickets at regular intervals as the visiting batters struggled to cope with the pace and bounce on the track. Rahul held one end up and tried his best to get his team close to the total. He started off slowly but accelerated as the innings went on. However, he kept running out of partners.

Rahul was finally dismissed for 74 in the 19th over and India's hopes of a win ended. They reached 132/8 at the end of their innings, losing the match by 36 runs. Lance Morris and Matthew Kelly impressed with the ball for WA XI as they claimed two wickets each, while the likes of Behrendorff, Andrew Tye, Hamish McKenzie and Philippe chipped in with a wicket each.

India will now take on Australia and New Zealand in two warm-up games on October 17 and 19 respectively followed by their T20 World Cup opener against Pakistan in Melbourne on October 23.