India chase away Aus!

This wasnrsquot quite payback but India traversed a little distance in erasing the pain of 19 November 2023 and the 50over World Cup final with a commanding performance against AustraliaA knockout bogey in ICC tournaments that has dogged them since 2015 was emphatically put to bed at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium as Rohit Sharmarsquos men surged into the final of the Champions Trophy on Tuesday night overcoming a spirited challenge from a belowstrength Australian outfit marshalled superbly by Steve SmithIn inarguably the best batting surface of four here so far the Australians were bowled out for 264 in the final over after Smith opted to bat perhaps 15 or so runs light given the platform that had been laid by Travis Head and the skipper himself Smith played an excellent hand while making 73 and Alex Carey made a sparkling halfcentury hand later on to ensure that the early good work was not entirely undone though by striking repeatedly and consistently through the innings India ensured that they didnrsquot leave themselves with too much to doAlso ReadDutch legend Taekema to train Indiarsquos women dragflickersIndiarsquos chase was rocked by a second cheap dismissal of Shubman Gill and Rohit failed to capitalise on two dropped catches trapped in front by leftarm spinner Cooper Connolly on the sweep But the middle order stood up with the master of the chase Virat Kohli Player of the Match once again setting his stall though for once he perished before taking his side over the finishing line It was left to KL Rahul to apply the finishing touches with a six off Glenn Maxwell that took India to a fourwicket win with 11 deliveries to spareIndia now await the winners of the second semifinal between South Africa and New Zealand in Lahore on Wednesday for the final scheduled at the DICS on SundayKohli and Shreyas Iyer offset the loss of Gill and Rohit with a thirdwicket stand of 91 marked by smart running between the wickets even as Smith moved his inexperienced bowling lineup around expertly never allowing the batters to line up a specific bowler Kohli received a reprieve when the usually safeashouses Maxwell put him down at short extracover when he was 51 and even though he fell with victory 41 runs away Rahul and Hardik Pandya ensured that there were few alarmsIndia were also well served by Axar Patel once again proving his utility at No 5 with an intelligent innings Indiarsquos chase was almost textbook never allowing the required rate to get out of hand and they knew that with the heavy artillery to follow six an over was never going to be beyond them so long as they had wickets in handNot for the first time in the tournament India didnrsquot have a great day in the field Mohammed Shami put Travis Head down off his own bowling with the first legal delivery of the day and also shelled a return catch to reprieve Smith but still ended up as the highest wickettaker while an unchanged spin quartet was good in parts even though Kuldeep Yadav was well below his best Every time Australia seemed to get on the ascendancy India pegged them back with wickets which perhaps proved decisive at the very endBrief scoresAustralia 264 all out in 493 overs S Smith 73 A Carey 61 T Head 39 M Shami 348 R Jadeja 240 V Chakravarthy 248 lost to India 2676 in 481 overs V Kohli 84 S Iyer 45 KL Rahul 42 N Ellis 249 A Zampa 260 by four wickets