Yuvraj Singh's all-round brilliance helped India beat Australia by five wickets and book a semi-final berth at the Motera stadium on Thursday.
The flamboyant Singh emerged with two wickets and scored an unbeaten 57 off 65 balls to send the defending champions packing.
India next plays Pakistan in the semi-finals at Mohali on March 30.
Opting to bat, Australia riding on skipper Ricky Ponting's 30th ODI ton posted 6-260 in their 50 overs. India, in reply, chased down the target with 14 balls to spare.
Chasing 261, Indian openers — Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar — started the run-chase aggressively against the lethal Australian pace attack.
Shane Watson, who failed to impress with the bat, provided Australia with the first breakthrough picking the wicket of danger man Sehwag on 15 as India were struggling at 1-44.
Tendulkar reached another milestone as he went past the 18,000-run mark in ODIs, but the legend failed to carry on the good work and was dismissed by pacer Shaun Tait on 53 off 68 balls.
Gautam Gambhir (50) and Virat Kohli (24) mixed caution with aggression to deny any further success to Australia and keep their chances afloat. In the process, they got a stand of 49 runs for the third wicket.
David Hussey came to Australia's rescue by sending Kohli back to the pavilion and after few overs a miscommunication between Yuvraj and Gambhir led to the fall of the latter's wicket.
Skipper MS Dhoni (7) also failed to prolong his stay at the centre and fell victim to Brett Lee's pace.
With three quick wickets, Australia looked to make a comeback into the game, but Yuvraj and Suresh Raina (34 off 28 balls) gave no chance to their opponents stitching an unbeaten 74-run partnership for the sixth wicket to guide India home.
Earlier, openers Watson and Brad Haddin played the new ball well and provided their side with a decent start.
However, the duo failed to score freely as the new ball was being shared by Ravichandran Ashwin and Zaheer Khan, who bowled a tight line and didn't give any room to play big shots.
Haddin and Watson managed to a forge a 40-run partnership for the first wicket before Ashwin struck on the last ball of the tenth over.
Watson tried to sweep an Ashwin delivery but missed the line completely and lost his off stump. The opener made 25 off 38 balls including five boundaries.
With Watson's departure, things were looking good for India before Haddin took seamer Munaf Patel to task in his first over.
Patel was hit for three boundaries as Australia managed to accumulate 30 runs from the bowling powerplay.
Haddin and Ponting produced a 70-run stand for the second wicket to have Australia cruising at 1-110.
The dangerous partnership was eventually broken by Yuvraj, who had Haddin caught by Suresh Raina at extra-cover. Haddin made 53 from 62 balls with six fours and one six.
Yuvraj claimed another wicket in the 31st over when Michael Clarke (8) trying to clear the ropes ended up giving a simple catch to Zaheer Khan at long-on.
Looking for another wicket, Dhoni threw the ball to spearhead Zaheer, who obliged by sending Michael Hussey (3) back to the pavilion.
With wickets tumbling at one end, Ponting anchored himself in the centre and played sensibly to score his sixth against India.
The skipper, though, lost his focus after crossing the three-figure mark and perished playing a loose shot. His 118-ball innings included seven fours and one six.
In the end, David, promoted to the side for Steve Smith, played a cameo knock of 38 off 26 balls to help Australia get past the 250-run mark.
For India, Ashwin, Yuvraj and Zaheer claimed two wickets each.
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Shane Watson was not good enough to bowl at the 40th over......another Ponting blunder. I loved that he scored a ton, well deserved but as a captain....he must go and continue on as a batsman only.
ReplyDeleteWatto looked like the most likely candidate because he knows how to take the pace off the ball and that is crucial in sub continental conditions but stubborn Ponting strikes again!
That all said, I would have put my house on an Indian victory before the match because this is just more of the same.