After India A's last-wicket pair denied them a chance to level the red-ball series earlier this month, Australia A stormed back to sew up the three-match one day-series, with one game to go, in Puducherry on Friday.

After being wrecked by pace and bounce in the first one-dayer, India A might have felt a sense of deja vu in the second. Though Mahli Beardman, the hero from Tuesday was rested, Australia A still managed to dismantle India A with pace and bounce. At 59 for 4 in their chase of 276, there was no way back for the hosts, despite Rajat Patidar's 67 off 82 balls.

Patidar's innings came to an end when Spencer Johnson ran in hard, hit the deck even harder, and made the batter mis-hit a pull to deep square leg. He was the only Indian batter to stand up to Australia's pace pack. The end was nigh when Johnson had Suryansh Shedge spooning a catch to mid-off off a hard-length delivery leaving the score 149 for 7 in the 35th over.

After Australia A opted to bat in this day fixture - the first one-dayer was a day-night affair - they posted 275 on the back of half-centuries from opener Sam Konstas and No.3 Josh Philippe.

Johnson claimed three wickets in Australia A's successful defence and found able support from Ben Dwarshuis and Riley Meredith. Johnson especially dominated the early exchanges, having Devdutt Padikkal upper cutting a short ball to deep third in the fifth over.

In the next over, he tore across to his right from deep third and held onto a spectacular grab in the outfield to send back Ruturaj Gaikwad, who captains him at Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. Meredith got extra bounce to mess with Gaikwad's cut shot and silenced the Puducherry crowd that had just celebrated a triptych of fours from Gaikwad.

After Meredith got rid of Gaikwad for 12 off 5 balls, Dwarshuis, the left-arm quick, had B Sai Sudharsan caught by the keeper with a steepling leg-stump lifter for 13. Beardman had dismissed Sai Sudharsan in similar fashion in the first game.

Kumar Kushagra, who got a game in place of Prabhsimran Singh, made 17 before part-time legspinner Nikhil Chaudhary hid a legbreak away from his reach and had him weakly carving a catch to long-off. Fifty-nine for 4 then became 110 for 5 when legspinner Tanveer Sangha, who was yanked from the bench, had Nishant Sindhu holing out for 13 off 33 balls.

The clatter of wickets resulted in a passage where India A went almost 13 overs without scoring a boundary. Patidar broke the drought when he swivel-pulled Johnson for four in the 19th over. Soon after, he firmly punched Meredith for four and went on to bring up back-to-back fifties. Johnson then stopped his innings on 67 and hastened the end for India A. The hosts were eventually bowled out for 206 with almost five overs unused in their innings.

While Australia A's fast bowlers took a slow, dry pitch out of the equation with their hit-the-deck hustle, India A tried to use it to their advantage by relying on their spinners: legspinner Vipraj Nigam and left-arm spinners Anukul Roy and Sindhu. The spin trio gave Gaikwad some control in the middle and even death overs, but they couldn't quite undo the good work done by Konstas and Philippe.

The pair combined for a 101-run stand for the second wicket off 116 balls after Yash Thakur had cut Mitch Owen's innings short on 25 off 13 balls. While Konstas was watchful in the powerplay, he manufactured scoring opportunities thereafter by stepping outside leg or stepping out of his crease with purpose. He moved to his second fifty-plus score in List A cricket and first on this India trip in six attempts. When he was looking good for even more, though, Arshad Khan bounced him out for 67 off 88 balls.

Philippe had also looked largely comfortable against spin and took a special liking to Sindhu's left-arm orthodox. He took him for 23 off 11 balls before Sindhu had him caught at midwicket. From 207 for 3, Australia folded for 275, but the bowlers regrouped to instigate an Indian collapse and secure the series.