Australia bites the dust as India strolls into the semis

It was yet again the spinning web that caught the Aussies off-guard against India. 7 wickets fell to the Indian spinners as they made the Aussies look like amateurs on the 22 yards. India won the match comfortably by 73 runs as Australia got out cheaply for 86 in just 16.2 overs.

t20-india beat australia-But the start did not forecast such a disaster for the Australians particularly when they won the toss and had India under pressure at 66/4 at the end of 12 overs having sent them to bat first. Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane (who came in to replace woefully out-of-form Shikhar Dhawan), in-form Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina was back to the pavilion. Still India had Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni left in the batting line-up. And this time Yuvi turned out to be the saviour for India scoring 60 of just 43 balls. Dhoni played a foil to that devastating innings from Yuvi scoring a patient 24 of 20 balls to guide India past the 150-run mark. India finished on 159/7 and had posted a competitive total for Australia to chase down on a slow pitch.

India made a good start with the ball though first ball was dispatched ruthlessly to the boundary by Aaron Finch. But as Ashwin came on, the Aussies looked like the fish out of water. He picked up quick wickets at one end and at the other the seamers, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma, who was making his debut for India in T20s, kept up the pressure bowling wicket-to-wicket and picking up important wickets in the form of Cameron White and Shane Watson. Glen Maxwell seemed to be the only batsman who was posing some sort of threat to the Indians as he flew off to 23 in just 12 balls hitting 3 mighty sixes, before getting to Ashwin trying to play a reverse sweep. Australia kept on losing wicket at regular intervals and it was a matter of time that the players were back in the dressing getting ready to get back to the hotels. Ashwin got the man-of-the-match award as he returned with figures of 3.2-0-11-4. Mishra picked a couple as Jadeja, Kumar and Mohit Sharma had one each to show off in the end.

It was a humiliating defeat for the Aussies to say the least. They are now out of the World Cup. They still have one match to play, against the hosts Bangladesh. The kind of form in which the Aussies are it can well be predicted that the Bangladeshis will give them a real fight and who knows we may witness the first upset in this edition of the tournament.

India, on the other hand, will on their feet and raring to go against any sort of attack in the semis. They have their bowlers performing brilliantly, the batsmen have stepped up when they needed to- and most importantly Yuvraj Singh is back in action with a bang. In such kind of form the Indians can surely pin their hopes of lifting the trophy after 7 long years.

Argha Ghosh

About Argha Ghosh

An ardent follower of sports and die-hard Manchester United fan, Argha's ultimate dream is to watch a Manchester derby from the Stretford End at the Old Trafford.
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