Western Australia XI 168 for 8 (Hobson 64, Short 52, Ashwin 3-32) beat Native Americans 132 for 8 (Rahul 74, Lance Morris 2-23, Kelly 2-26) with 36 runs
In the pursuit of 169, Indian openers Rahul and RIshabh Pant started slowly against the effective charge of BBL champion Perth Scorchers. Pant again struggled to get fluid as he swung, missing on several attempts at punches against Jason Behrendorff’s accurate left arm pace.
Rahul was the exception, as he struck carefully before opening with a pair of sixes in the 18th over from Behrendorff to give India a sniff of an unlikely win. But his dismissal in the next over effectively cut the match as India split their warm-up matches in Perth.
WA XI controlled the game the entire time after opting to bat in sunny conditions. Their punching power was boosted by the inclusion of BBL star Josh Philippe, but the opener went to Arshdeep Singh in the third over.
As in the first game, quicks Arshdeep and Bhuvneshwar Kumar conjured up a sharp bounce on a fast deck, but after that wickets were harder to come by.
Hobson, who plays for Perth Scorchers and is an accountant in his day job, was particularly combative against the spinners, hitting four sixes in his 41-ball knock.
But his dismissal caused a WA collapse with Ashwin getting into a good rhythm after a rocky start with wickets in consecutive balls to remove captain Ashton Turner and Sam Fanning, who played in game one with half a century but the 21-year-old ill-advised tried to reverse-sweep his first ball.
India was sharp on the field, marked by two direct hits, and well drafted by Rahul, although Captain Rohit still gave instructions.
Kohli didn’t play in the two warm-up games in Perth, much to the disappointment of the locals, but did field and spend time on the first slip and deep. He also jogged laps before playing.
A strong crowd of 2,500 fans attended and the AUD 5 entry fee went to the WA Cricket Foundation.
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