LAHORE, June 25: Hundreds from Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and four wickets from teenage leg spinner Piyush Chawla helped India to a thumping 256-run win over Hong Kong in the Asia Cup one-day tournament in Karachi on Wednesday.

Chawla bamboozled the Hong Kong batsmen, whose inexperience at international level was exposed as they were bowled out for just 118 after being hammered for 374 for four by the Indians.

Raina struck his maiden one-day century, scoring 101, and captain Dhoni hit an unbeaten 109 as their fourth-wicket partnership put on 166 runs in 123 balls.

India got off to a breezy start, with Virender Sehwag (78) and Gautam Gambhir (51) reaching 100 in 65 balls in a 127-run opening stand.

Raina, in Asia Cup, savaged the Hong Kong bowlers, racing through his second 50 in only 16 balls with five sixes and three fours.

Dhoni’s fourth one-day hundred came from 90 balls with six sixes.

Chawla took career-best figures of four for 23, while Sehwag wrapped up the match by taking wickets off successive balls, the Hong Kong innings lasting just 36.5 overs.

Chawla dismissed captain Tabarak Dar, who batted resolutely for 21 runs, Hussain Butt and Courtney Kruger, all stumped by Dhoni. His fourth victim was Munir Dar, caught by Yusuf Pathan.

Indian paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth has been asked by the national cricket board to explain an altercation he had with the staff of a Bangalore hotel during the weekend.

Domestic media reported Sreesanth, out of this month’s Asia Cup due to injury, got into an argument at the hotel where he was staying to attend a camp at the national cricket academy.

“We have written to Sreesanth and the hotel management seeking details about what exactly happened,” the board’s chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty told Reuters on Wednesday.

The player shifted to another hotel the following day.

An executive at the hotel confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday the incident involving Sreesanth took place and that he had lodged a complaint against the Cricket player with his supervisor. Sreesanth could not be reached for his comments.

Last month, the board warned Sreesanth to improve his behaviour following an incident where he was slapped by India team mate Harbhajan Singh at the end of a domestic Twenty20 league game.

Off-spinner Harbhajan was banned for the rest of the league games and then suspended for five one-dayers.

Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, believes a more mature outlook from his developing squad was responsible for the competitive efforts against Australia over the past three Tests. Australia won the series 2-0 but they were strongly challenged by an improving West Indies, who pushed all three matches to the fifth day and looked far better than their No. 8 world ranking.

“The guys are really enjoying their cricket and they’re becoming more mature and so on, so hopefully we can continue in the same vein,” Gayle said. “We played good cricket right throughout the series but unfortunately we came out the losing side.”

The result was confirmed on the final day in Barbados, where his men were pursuing a daunting 475 for victory, which was 57 runs greater than the highest successful run chase ever achieved in Tests. Gayle said West Indies genuinely felt they had a chance when Dwayne Bravo and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were building a 122-run stand.

“It was a good game today,” Gayle said. “I can’t fault the guys for the effort they’ve put in today, to put on 380 runs is pretty good but unfortunately we lost. We knew that it was not going to be easy, someone had to get a big hundred which we didn’t get in this game.”

A key moment came when Chanderpaul was lbw for 50 and it was only the third time Australia had managed to dismiss him during the three Tests. Despite the loss, Chanderpaul was pleased with the side’s resolve throughout the series.