PHOTOS: Watson, Warner help Australia thrash India

Australia, the beaten finalists in 2010, crushed India by nine wickets in a one-sided Super Eights contest of the World T20 at the R Premadas stadium in Colombo on Friday.

Australian pacers, led by Shane Watson (3-34) and Pat Cummins (2-16) knocked the stuffing out of the Indian batsmen by restricting them to 140 for seven after being asked to bowl.

The highly successful opening pair of Watson (72) and David Warner (63 not out) then sent the bowlers on a leatherhunt as they finished the match with 5.1 overs to spare.

All-rounder Watson again did everything right as he first grabbed three wickets and then decimated the Indian attack as he hit as many seven huge sixes in his superb knock off 41 balls, fetching him his third man-of-the match award in a row. 

With the able support from Warner who also took Indian bowlers to the cleaners with an unbeaten knock, the two openers literally bulldozed the Indian spin trio. 

On a pitch that was supposed to assist spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla were punished mercilessly by the Aussie openers who added 133 for the first wicket. 

Watson who completed his 50 off 28 balls first hit Ashwin for a couple of sixes and then one by one launched into Harbhajan, Chawla and Irfan Pathan.

Earlier, opting to bat on a slowish wicket, India were found wanting against the pace of Cummins and Starc while they had little answers for Watson's guile. 

Gautam Gambhir struck three boundaries before he was run-out in the third over. Cummins successfully booted the ball onto the stumps while the opener was still short of his ground. The left-hander managed only 17. 

From 70 for two at the start of the 11th over, India were suddenly reduced to 74 for five in a few balls.

The experiment to promote Irfan Pathan as makeshift opener partially paid off as he made a scratchy 31 and was the top scorer while most of the other batsmen failed to cross 20. 

Pathan fell into a trap set up by Aussie captain Bailey off the last ball of the same over. The left-hander hit two fours and a straight six off Watson. 

Knowing the all-rounder's tendency to flick anything on his pads, Cameron White was stationed at short mid-wicket exactly for that particular shot and it brought Irfan's downfall. 

Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli were done in by short deliveries, Rohit Sharma found pace too hot to handle. 

Dhoni paid for his indiscretion. Suresh Raina (26) and Ravichandran Ashwin (16 not out) who hit a few meaty blows added 29 runs for the seventh wicket to rescue India after being precariously placed at 104 for six.

It was interesting that on a pitch which was considered to aid spinners, Australian pacers bowled with lot of fire sticking to their strengths. 

Failure is a rare phenomenon for Virat Kohli (15) these days and he started with couple of boundaries before mis-timing a pull shot of a short-pitch delivery from Cummins as Dan Christian took a well judged catch. 

Later, Cummins bowled one fast and wide outside the off-stump and MS Dhoni (15) drove uppishly only to find the cover fielder (George Bailey) gleefully accept his offer. 

The 19-year-old Cummins finished with impressive figures of two for 16.

Before dominating with the bat Watson also delivered with the ball. 

Besides having Irfan Pathan caught by Cameron White, he also picked up the wickets of Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina to finished with impressive figures of three for 34. 

No points for guessing he picked up the man of the match award. 

In fact he was adjudged man-of-the-match for the third consecutive match of his side. 

"The last couple of games have been pretty good. It's nice when things come together like this," admitted Watson.