Australia thrashes India by 87 runs in tri-series ODI at Sydney

Sydney, Feb 26(ANI): Australia trounced India by 87 runs in the tri-series ODI match in Sydney on Sunday.

With this win Australia confirmed its place in the final of the Commonwealth Bank tri-series.

The Indian team did reasonably well in the death overs to restrict the hosts to 252 for nine but could never really recover from the early jolts to fold up for a paltry 165 in 39.3 overs to suffer their third defeat on the trot, in what turned out to be a irregular contest marked by controversial 'obstruction' incidents.

David Warner's 68, Matthew Wade's 56 and David Hussey's 54 were the main catalyst's which helped Australia reach a total of 252 in their allotted fifty overs.

During the Indian innings, Gambhir (23) and Virat Kohli (21) briefly promised a revival, putting on 44 runs for the third wicket before both fell close to each other. The rest of the batting line up failed to provide any resistance.

Australian bowlers bowled a tight line and length throughout the second innings and starved Indian batsmen for runs throughout the match.

The lackluster show by the Indians gave the Australians a bonus point, which has now put them on top of the point table with 19 points followed by Sri Lanka who have 15 points. India remained static on 10 points.

India still have a slender chance of sneaking into the finals if they can manage to beat Sri Lanka with a bonus point in their last league match and hope that the islanders lose to Australia in their last match with a big margin.

In such a scenario, both India and Sri Lanka will be tied with 15 points and the net run rate will come into play. (ANI)