Mumbai, Jan 14: Skipper Aaron Finch and David Warner smashed unbeaten centuries to help Australia thrash India by 10 wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series here on Tuesday.
Chasing 256 for win, Finch (110 not out) and Warner (124 not out) took the Indian bowlers to the cleaners to register the emphatic win with 74 balls to spare and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan hit a half-century before Australia pulled things back to bowl India out for 255 after being invited to bat.
Dhawan looked in great touch during his 91-ball 74 and, in the company of K L Rahul (47), shared a second-wicket stand of 121 runs off 136 balls to set the base for India's total. However, India failed to capitalise.
When Dhawan and Rahul were at the crease, India were cruising towards a big total but their dismissal in space of 10 balls affected their run-rate. They raised a 121-run partnership for the second wicket.
The hosts struggled to raise any substantial partnership after that.
The second ODI of the series will be played in Rajkot on Friday.
Brief Scores:
India: 255 all out in 49.1 overs. (S Dhawan 74, KL Rahul 47; M Starc 3/56, P Cummins 2/44, K Richardson 2/43).
Australia: 258 for no loss in 37.4 overs (David Warner 124 not out, Aaron Finch 110 not out).
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Palanpur, Mar 28: A sessions court in Palanpur in Gujarat's Banaskantha district on Thursday sentenced former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to 20 years in jail in a 1996 case involving planting of drugs to frame a lawyer.
Bhatt, who is already behind bars in a custodial death case, was held guilty of falsely implicating a Rajasthan-based lawyer by claiming, in 1996, that police had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur where the lawyer was staying.
Bhatt, who was sacked from the force in 2015, was serving as the superintendent of police of Banaskantha district at the time.
Additional District and Sessions Judge J N Thakkar convicted Bhatt on Wednesday under relevant sections of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Indian Penal Code. The quantum of punishment was announced on Thursday.