India’s first match on the second day of their tour was a warm-up match against Australia Prime Minister’s XI, which gave the team from India a measure of the conditions when the first day was washed off by rain. The match was reduced to a 46-over-a-side affair to ensure both teams could still get valuable practice before the start of the official series.
Choosing to bat first, Australia PM XI faced an early setback as Indian pacer Harshit Rana took 4 wickets for 44 runs. Rana, shining through India, actively moved to dismiss the Australia Prime Minister’s XI for a target of 240 runs, which looked comfortable for the visitors to chase.
Replacing Rohit Sharma, the regular opener in the Indian team, down the order to number four was an effort made to tinker with the batting order. Unfortunately for the company, the change did not turn out as planned. Rohit, who was the first change to the team, looked set in the beginning but could not get his batting going and was out for a duck 11, which proved a setback for India in the initial overs.
However, Rohit Sharma failed, while Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal got good scores. Gill, who retired hurt on 50, was impressive in his treating the crease, and Jaiswal came good with 45 runs. Both of them wonderfully supported India in chasing the target without any complexes.
India played this match and finally won the match by 5 wickets, though the innings were played till the full 46 overs as the match was mainly conceived to play a competitive match as practice. It was helpful to India, as this warm-up match gave them the opportunity to see players in match situations, if necessary, making small changes before a main series.
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