Chennai: Captain Usman Khawaja and his opening partner Joe Burns smashed scintillating centuries as Australia A thrashed a hapless India A by a massive 119 runs in the second tri-series cricket match here on Friday.
Khawaja and Burns continued their top form as they sent the Indian bowlers to a leatherhunt in their knocks of 100 and 154 respectively, sharing 239 runs from 35.5 overs in their opening stand, to help Australia A post a mammoth 334 for 4 after electing to bat at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here.
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The Indians produced a spineless show in all departments of the game as their bowlers were first steamrolled by Khawaja and Burns during the Australia A innings and then the home team batsmen fell far short of reaching the stiff target of 335 as they were bundled out for just 215 in 42.3 overs.
The Australians maintained their wicket to wicket bowling and the impatient Indian batsmen paid the price of chasing short-pitched deliveries. The wicket appeared to offer good bounce throughout the day but the hosts batsmen were to be blamed for failing to make a mark as the majority of them were out due to wrong shot selections.
The bowling frailties of the home side were exposed badly as Khawaja and Burns made a mincemeat of them, scoring runs almost at will and denying the Indians any success till the 36th over.
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When Khawaja, who was also in great touch in the 'Test' series against India A, was out for 100 after hitting 10 fours and three sixes from 104 balls, the visiting side were well on course for a huge total.
Leg-spinner Karn Sharma bore the brunt of the assault from the Australia A openers as he bled 58 runs from his five overs before being taken off. Off-spinner Parveez Rasool and pacer Dhawal Kulkarni were also taken to task as they conceded 57 and 70 runs from their seven and 10 overs respectively.
Kulkarni got one scalp while Rasool went wicketless. Sandeep Sharma, Axar Patel and Karun Nair also got a wicket apiece.
Brief scores: Australia A 334/4 in 50 overs (J Burns 154, U Khawaja 100; S Sharma 1/42, A Patel 1/55) beat India A 215 all out in 42.3 overs (U Chand 52, K Jadhav 50; G Sandhu 4/28, A Zampa 4/49) by 119 runs
