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Australia and India turned up to do battle at the Kensington Oval in Barbados in the opening Group F match in the ICC World T20 Super 8s, but sadly there was only one team ever in the contest. When the non-existent smoke had cleared and the last bail had fallen, there was only one thing left to say - it was a plain and simple rout.

World cricket's two biggest powerhouses were supposed to produce a spectacle in Barbados worthy of a final, thus thought cricket fans as they finally thronged to a game in numbers, but someone had failed to give a copy of the script to either party. Before the game started, the pundits were already preparing excuses for a poor Indian showing - the injury to Praveen Kumar, the absence of a quality third seamer, the bouncy nature of the Oval track, etc. A more pertinent addition to that list would have been - Australia the better team.

Shane Watson (54) and David Warner (72) shared in an opening stand of over a hundred in a bit more than 10 overs, and then Warner and David Hussey (35) took turns smashing the Indian bowling out of the park. Australia probably should have scored 200 plus, but had to be content with 184 after the Indian bowlers pulled things back in the last four overs, conceding less than a run a ball. Their happiness mirage lasted only till the interval as some searing pace, and bounce to go with it, saw the Indian innings in ruins at 50 for 7 in one ball less than it took Australia to bring up their century. Rohit Sharma rescued the innings with an unbeaten 79, but couldn't prevent India from slumping to a near 50 run defeat. Nannes and Tait were the wreckers-in-chief for Australia, picking up 6 wickets between them.

The day started well for India, winning the toss, but rather surprisingly opting to field first. India made three changes to the team that beat South Africa five days ago in the friendly confines of St. Lucia, Zaheer Khan returning to the side for the injured Praveen Kumar, while batsman Rohit Sharma was called in for his first game of the tournament in place of leg spinner Piyush Chawla. With the wicket known to assist the quicker bowlers, it was no surprise that India attempted to shore up their batting. Gautam Gambhir, who missed the last game due to diarrhea, also returned to the fold in place of Dinesh Karthik. Australia made just the one expected change, with Mitchell Johnson coming back into the team in place of Ryan Harris.

Harbhajan Singh started proceedings with his off-spinners and opened with a maiden to Shane Watson. Warner and Watson counter attacked in the very next over, hitting a 4 and a 6 respectively off Ashish Nehra to set the tone for the innings. Ravindra Jadeja was brought on to replace Nehra, just minutes after missing a very tough chance of Watson in Harbhajan's second over. Watson thanked his former Rajasthan Royals teammate by hitting him for three consecutive sixes to power Australia forward.

Australia took 23 runs off Zaheer Khan's two overs and when Jadeja was called back in the 10th over for a second spell Warner hit him for three successive sixes to make it 6 in 6 balls against the young left-arm spinner. It was the last we'd see of him with the ball on Friday. Another Royal, Yusuf Pathan, who had sneaked in two overs for just 10 runs was smashed for 10 in his third over, but did bring India the breakthrough they so desperately craved, bowling Watson for 54.

Sixes continued to shower, as Australia amassed a total of 16 in their innings. Warner clubbed his way to 72 before edging one off Yuvraj to the keeper, and though India did pick up some more late wickets in that excellent final race to the flag, a score of 184 with the Aussie bowling line-up to follow was always going to be too much.

India's openers, Murali Vijay and Gautam Gambhir, got their fair share of short pitched stuff topped with verbal volleys from the Aussie fielders. A leading edge from Vijay was easily snaffled in the covers, while Gambhir's half-fend half-pull flew straight to the man at short midwicket, Nannes dismissing both openers in his 2nd over. Raina (5) fell to the pull shot, his inability to play the short ball well exploited by Shaun Tait, and Nannes made it 23 for 4, yorking Yuvraj Singh (1) with a beauty in the 5th over.

A partnership of 14 between Rohit Sharma, who played and missed his fair share, and MS Dhoni was noteworthy, the highest in the innings thus far. Dhoni (2) lacked the patience to play his side out of trouble, falling in Steve Smith's first over, failing to clear the man at long-on. A poor decision by the skipper given the circumstances.

Yusuf Pathan (1), failed to learn from Dhoni's error and David Warner took an excellent catch coming in from the cover boundary to get Mitchell Johnson amongst the wickets. Ravindra Jadeja ended a poor match on a terrible note, getting himself run out for 4 as India flirted with the prospect of falling well short of a hundred with Rohit Sharma left batting with the bowlers and still 9 overs to play.

With the potential of this result being catastrophic on India's net run rate, Rohit Sharma decided to take matters into his own hands. Having played himself in with 21 runs from an equal number of balls faced, the young Mumbai lad exploded. Sharma scored 58 runs from his next 25 deliveries manning a one-man rescue act to guide India to 135 before the tail decided to desert him.

A 49-run defeat would all but kill India's chances of making it through the Super 8s, but with the unpredictable nature of T20 cricket, it is still very possible of more such defeats to be inflicted on the sides in their group. India will need to get their team composition right when they take on the West Indies once again in Barbados, and run the danger of a repeat poor showing with the bat. Australia meanwhile will take on Sri Lanka later that same Sunday, and the other sub-continental team in Group F will hope that they don't meet a similar fate.

Mini Scorecard:

Australia 184/5 (20 overs, 9.2 rpo)
Warner 72 (42)          Yuvraj 2-20
Watson 54 (32)          Nehra 2-31

India 135 all out (17.4 overs, 7.6rpo)
Sharma 79* (46)      Nannes 3-25
Harbhajan 13 (11)   Tait 3-21

Also Read: Pakistan vs. New Zealand Match Preview

File Photograph Copyright: ICC World T20

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