CHENNAI, Feb 18: Australian batsmen’s woes against spinners were exposed once again as India ‘A’s unfancied duo of left-arm spinner Rakesh Dhurv and off-spinner Jalaj Saxena excelled with an impressive display, forcing the visitors to follow on before the warm-up match ended in a draw here on Monday.

Dhurv grabbed five for 51 while all-rounder Saxena took four for 61 to dismiss Australia for 235 in their first innings in reply to India ‘A’s total of 451.

With 216-run deficit, India ‘A’ skipper Gautam Gambhir enforced follow-on and Australian did a shade better in their second essay by finishing on 195-3 at the Guru Nanak College ground.

In all, it was a moral victory for the India ‘A’ side as they exposed the chinks in the Aussie armoury. Against the Indian Board President’s XI in their first warm-up game, the Aussies were bowled out for 241. In two successive matches, their batsmen failed to post a total in excess of 250.

The Aussies started the final day at 131-4 and the overnight pair Matthew Wade (44) and Moises Henriques (33) took the score to 176 with a 49-run fifth wicket stand.

Mitchell Starc (11) and Nathan Lyon (0) then went for wild slogs off Saxena and were dismissed cheaply.

Australia lost their last six wickets in only 26.3 overs.—Agencies

Scoreboard INDIA ‘A’ (1st Innings) 451 (M.K. Tiwary 129, G. Gambhir 112, R.G. Sharma 77; A.C. Agar 3-107, X.J. Doherty 3-108).

AUSTRALIA (1st Innings, overnight 131-4): S.R. Watson c Gautam b Dhurv    84 E.J.M. Cowan lbw b Dhurv    40 P.J. Hughes st Gautam b Saxena    1 U.T. Khawaja b Saxena    1 M.S. Wade c Gony b Dhurv    44 M.C. Henriques lbw b Dhurv    33 P.M. Siddle run out    2 M.A. Starc c Vinay b Saxena    11 N.M. Lyon b Saxena    0 X.J. Doherty c Gautam b Dhurv    7 A.C. Agar not out    4

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-2, NB-2)    8 TOTAL (all out, 62.3 overs)    235 FALL OF WKTS: 1-116, 2-117, 3-127, 4-127, 5-176, 6-182, 7-199, 8-199, 9-214. BOWLING: Vinay Kumar 9-3-16-0; Kulkarni 10-2-37-0; Gony 4-0-37-0; Nayar 6-0-27-0 (2nb); Dhurv 14.3-2-51-5; Saxena 19-6-61-4.

AUSTRALIA (2nd Innings, following on): S.R. Watson run out    60 E.J.M. Cowan c Vinay b Saxena    53 P.J. Hughes b Dhurv    19 U.T. Khawaja not out    30 M.S. Wade not out    19

EXTRAS (B-8, LB-5, NB-1)    14 TOTAL (for three wkts, 55 overs)    195 FALL OF WKTS: 1-104, 2-118, 3-162. BOWLING: Gony 7-0-30-0; Dhurv 18-3-57-1; Saxena 16-4-37-1; Sharma 4-0-22-0; Tiwary 10-0-36-0. RESULT: Match drawn. UMPIRES: A. Chaudhry and P.G. Pathak. MATCH REFEREE: B. Kalyanasundaram.