India beat Australia, to meet West Indies in semi-final

The odds were stacked in India’s favour. Home crowd, best-suited surface, a knock-out and the hosts came out with flying colours as they dumped Australia out of the World T20 with a clinical six-wicket victory here on Sunday.

India will meet West Indies in the semi-final at Mumbai while New Zealand and England will slug it out in another at Delhi.

It had to be talisman Virat Kohli to anchor the chase and he did it in style. Averaging more than a 100, Kohli hardly put a foot wrong as he produced a clinical batting performance. Walking in at 23/1, Kohli produced a master-class 82 in 51 balls with nine fours and two sixes as India overhauled the target of 161 in 19.1 overs. He plundered runs at will as he sent Australia on a leather hunt as the bowlers ran out of ideas to stop the rampage on a pitch that played well when India were batting. 

India had won the last five T20s against Australia and they could do nothing wrong in the sixth with thousands cheering for India at a packed IS Bindra Stadium here.

India started off in fine fashion when Shikhar Dhawan pierced the off-side with a neat drive that set the crowd in frenzy. He sent the crowd in a trance when he swung across the line to Josh Hazlewood and sent the ball soaring over Glenn Maxwell’s head at deep square leg.

The joy was short lived when Dhawan couldn’t take a bouncer clean from Nathan Coulter-Nile and ended up top edging it to short fine leg where Usman Khawaja held on to the skier well and India lost their first wicket at 23/1.

Kohli was welcomed with a loud cheer and the batsman responded immediately when he smacked Hazlewood for two boundaries in as many balls with a display of elegant stroke-play.

However, it soon became 37/2 when Rohit Sharma failed to connect an off-cutter from Shane Watson and ended up missing the ball completely to be bowled for 12, adding another failure match in his record books.

Suresh Raina then made the long walk back to the hut when Watson dug in short and the southpaw gloved it to the keeper and with 49/3, India were staring down a barrel.

Hometown hero Yuvraj Singh had to be treated on-field for an ankle injury but continued to bat and stitched a 45-run partnership with Kohli for the fourth wicket. The Delhi batsman was harsh on Glenn Maxwell, hitting him for a six over long-off and took 12 runs off the bowler.

With the required run-rate soaring past the 10-run mark, the Indian batsmen upped the ante but Yuvraj fell when Watson took a blinder at covers to send back the left hander.

Indian skipper Dhoni then joined Kohli and the run rate leaped past the 12-run mark. Both the batsmen crafted boundaries well and converted the singles into twos to keep India in the game.  

Kohli, averaging 109 when India is chasing, brought his half-century off 39 balls when he swatted one to the deep off Watson.

It left India needing 39 from the last three overs, Kohli hit two boundaries and a huge six off Faulkner to ease the nerves of a billion people as he milked 19 from the 18th over to set up an unbelievable win for India with five balls to spare.  

Earlier, Steve Smith won the toss and chose to bat first without any hesitation. The decision appeared to be spot-on as Aaron Finch and Khawaja started on a rousing note. Khawaja was harsh on new-rookie Jasprit Bumrah by smashing him for four boundaries in the second over as Australia got off to a flier.

Dhoni introduced Ravichandran Ashwin in the third over, but the off-spinner started on a worst fashion when Finch hit two sixes in as many balls in an identical fashion. A wide ball that missed everything and everyone and ran away to the boundary worsened the problems as Ashwin conceded 22 off his first over and Australia got to 50 in the fourth over.

Veteran speedster Ashish Nehra got the vital breakthrough when Khawaja drove hard at a good length ball that shaped away from him from around off stump and only succeeded in getting a thick edge through to Dhoni. A quiet over from Bumrah meant Australia finished the power play at just under 10 an over at 59/1.

New comer David Warner couldn’t make his time count as he charged down the track to Ashwin only to miss the ball on the turn and Dhoni did the rest behind the stumps. Finch, meanwhile, muscled a couple of boundaries and that kept the run rate hovering around the eight-run mark.

Yuvraj, who did not get a chance to roll his arm over in the tournament, couldn’t have asked for a better stage to get a hand to bowl as he sent Aussie captain Steve Smith with his first ball of the tournament. Although replays suggested that the ball missed the bat’s inside edge, a vociferous appeal from Dhoni and Yuvraj ended when umpire Marias Erasums raised the dreaded finger and Smith walked out shaking his head.

Yuvraj, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya sneaked in a few quiet overs as Maxwell and Finch found the slow nature of the pitch tough to bat on. Finch pulled Pandya for four and brought up the team 100 but perished the next ball. The batsman attempted the same shot but only found Dhawan at deep mid wicket who clung on to the ball with a cool head.

Maxwell was unorthodox and couldn’t flex his muscles until he reverse swept Jadeja for a six. However, Bumrah removed Maxwell in a ‘you miss, I hit’ moment as the batsman missed a straight ball and the ball clipped the top of off-stump with the score reading at 132/5.

A last over onslaught by Peter Nevill and Watson saw Australia finish at 160/6 in their 20 overs.