ICC T20 World Cup 2022: Despite Rahul's knock, India go down to Western Australia in the second warm up match

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Bengaluru, October 13: KL Rahul's 74 went in vain as Western Australia beat India by 36 runs in the second practice match ahead of ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) Ground in Perth on Thursday (October 13).

India had notched up a rather nervy 13-run win over Western Australia in the first practice at the same WACA ground on Monday (October 10).

But this time the Western Australians had the last laugh.

Put into bat, Western Australia made 162 for eight before restricting India to 132 for eight.

Opening the innings, Rahul made a brisk 74 off 55 balls, but he found little support from the other end as none of the other batters failed to fire.

India will now next take on Australia at the Gabba, Brisbane on October 17 and then face New Zealand at the same venue two days later.

In the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, the Rohit Sharma-led head to Melbourne for their high-voltage Super 12 opener against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23.

The Men in Blue have travelled down under for the show-piece event after back-to-back 2-1 home series wins against Australia and South Africa.

The inaugural T20I champions will now hope to land their second title and bounce back from a Super 12 exit in the last edition.

The 2007 T20 champions were originally scheduled to play only two warm-up matches against Australia and New Zealand on October 17 and 19 respectively, but BCCI arranged two more warm-up fixtures against Western Australia on October 10 and 13 respectively.

Earlier, in the first warm up match, Western Australua could manage only 145 for eight in 20 overs, ending short of the target by 13 runs.

A gutsy half-century from in-form Suryakumar Yadav and cameos from Deepak Hooda and Hardik Pandya had powered India to a decent total of 158 for eight, which the Western Australians could not chase down.