Karnataka XI suffered a five-wicket thrashing at the hands of Australian Academy in their opening match of the Twenty20 Emerging Players' Tournament at Caloundra, Australia, on Monday.

After putting up a total of 130, the Indians were unable to restrict the local team, which clinched victory with seven balls to spare.

S Aravind struck twice when Australia were 18 before Luke Ronchi (31) and Luke Pomersbach (26) rescued the locals, while Craig Philipson and Ed Cowan steered the chase.

Cowan was 27 not out when victory was sealed shortly before dusk.

Earlier, Deepak Chougle, coming at number four, led Karnataka's resistance with 36 and Bharat Chipli and Amit Verma also made starts but failed to covert them.

The Indians play their next match against New Zealanders on Tuesday.

Brief Scores: Karnataka State Cricket Association XI 8 for 129 (Chougle 36, Heal 3-26) lost to Australian Academy 5 for 132 (Ronchi 31), by five wickets.

In another match of the day, South Africa Emerging Players 134 for 6 (Justin Ontong 63*, Sullivan 3-30) beat Australian Academy 131 for 7 (Ronchi 35, Morne Morkel 3-8) by four wickets.