Perth: Australia, led by David Warner’s breezy 178, recorded an emphatic 275-run win over Afghanistan at the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) ground on Wednesday. It was the biggest win by any team in a World Cup match in terms of runs and the second-biggest win overall in a One Day International.

Warner dominated the Afghanistan attack from the start till the 38th over and hit 19 boundaries and five sixes from the 133 balls he faced. He put on a mammoth 260-run partnership for the second wicket with Steven Smith, who hit 95 runs off 98 balls with eight boundaries and a six. Glenn Maxwell and Smith swelled the total further with a 65-run partnership for the third wicket. Maxwell went on to crack 88 runs off just 39 balls with six boundaries and seven sixes to help Australia post 417 for six in 50 overs.

In reply, Afghanistan were bowled out for 142 runs in 37.3 overs with Mitchell Johnson taking four wickets for 22 runs backed by Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood with two wickets each.

Minnows Afghanistan surprised everyone by electing to field after winning the toss. Andy Moles, the coach of the Afghanistan team defended the decision later: “If Afghanistan are going to beat Australia today, if we’d have batted first and got 260, in all probability that wouldn’t have been enough, as you saw. The only way we can beat Australia is to bowl first, bowl well and try to restrict them to somewhere near 300, and then hopefully our strokemakers can have a good day and chase it down. To do that we should have to bowl obviously a lot better than we did today.”

Afghan bowlers got carried away by the bounce and were duly punished. “Many teams come to Perth and unfortunately fall into the trap of bowling shorter and shorter as they see the ball carrying through to the keeper at head height. We did discuss it. We’ve been here in October and November and the guys had the opportunity to bowl on this wicket and it’s just disappointing and sad that we went away from the lengths. It is a disappointment, but they’re not the first group of bowlers to fall into that trap, and we’ve got to learn from this incident.”

Australian skipper Michael Clarke was delighted that his team had bounced back after the one-wicket loss for a record-breaking victory.

“I think it’s nice to turn our form around after New Zealand match, especially with the bat. I thought the boys played really well to make 400, our highest World Cup score ever. That’s very satisfying and really pleasing after the way we batted against New Zealand. I think there are obviously some outstanding individual performances, Warner obviously led the way with that and Smith played around Davey and Glenn Maxwell. I thought they all played really well to get that record, and then once again, we came out and bowled and fielded really well. I think that side of our game seems pretty consistent and we have to continue to bowl and field the way we are. Like I say, it’s a real positive to be able to turn things around with the bat so quickly.”

Clarke has already fixed his focus on his team’s next match against Sri Lanka in Sydney. “I think they [Sri Lanka] are going to be a really tough team to beat. They like the Sydney Cricket Ground and they’re playing some really good cricket. They’ve got experience, and I think that’s always an important part of a good team in major tournaments. I think if you’ve got some players that have been involved in World Cups before, I think that gives you a good advantage, and I think Sri Lanka have certainly got a few of those players and they’re in really good form, like you said. We are all excited about playing them.”