Australia A beat India A by 10 wickets, win series 1-0

Chennai, Aug 1 - Australia hammered India A by 10 wickets on the fourth day of the second and final four-day cricket match to pocket the series 1-0 at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium here on Saturday.

India ended Friday's play at 267/6 in their second innings, a lead of only 53 runs. And they needed a huge effort from their tail-enders to bail them out to a possible draw.

But on expected lines, they were bowled out for 274 as Indian origin pacer Gurinder Sandhu bagged three quick wickets and left-arm spinner Steve O'Keefe got a four-wicket haul in the innings.

As a result, Australia needed only 60 runs to win, which they did without losing any wickets. Cameron Bancroft, who scored 150 in the first innings, remained not out on 21, while captain Usman Khawaja was not out on 41.

Earlier in the day, Baba Aparajith managed to add only two runs to his overnight score of 28, while the other not out batter Shreyas Gopal failed to open his account -- both were dismissed by right-armer Sandhu. Varun Aaron (1)fell to the paceman as he edged an away moving delivery to wicket-keeper Matthew Wade. 

Spinner O'Keefe, who on Friday rocked the Indian top-order with wickets of Virat Kohli, skipper Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer, removed Shardul Thakur to end the Indian innings for 274. 

A target of 60 runs was a cakewalk for the Australians as their openers raced to 62 in just 6.2 overs.

Brief Scores: India A 135 & 274 (Abhinav Mukund 59, Shreyas Iyer 49; Steve O'Keefe 4-88, Gurinder Sandhu 3-76) vs Australia A 349 and 62/0. Australia A win by 10 wickets.

(IANS)