World Cup 2015 SF 2 India vs Australia; Smith 100 and Johnson sink India, will meet co-hosts New Zealand in the finals

World Cup 2015 SF 2 India vs Australia; Smith 100 and Johnson sink India, will meet co-hosts New Zealand in the finals: The match between the defending champions India and former champions Australia was deemed to be the most explosive of the semi-finals and was supposed to supersede the South Africa-New Zealand match in terms of excitement and the ooh-aah moments. It did so and provided us a gem of a semi-final, which the better team won in the end. Read on more for our detailed review of the match.

Australia batted first after winning the toss on a batting friendly SCG pitch. They resisted the urge to bring in an extra spinner and went in unchanged. India also decided to go in unchanged with the side that got them to the World Cup semi-finals.  David Warner was removed early in the innings for 12 runs by Umesh Yadav who was averaging 145 kmph on the SCG wicket. This brought in Steve Smith, India’s tormentor in chief to the wicket. HE and Aaron Finch, who was looking all at sea against the Indian quick bowling, then began to slowly knock the singles and doubles with occasional boundaries.

Both of them also played Ashwin with ease, scoring runs off him easily. Smith was looking fluent as he had looked against India all the season. He looked confident against both spin and fast, taking a special liking to Umesh Yadav. Finch on the other end played, missed, but stayed alive to give Smith support. Both of them added 182 runs for the second wicket. Steve Smith completed a well-deserved and well-constructed hundred, while Finch completed a laboured fifty. Steve Smith was dismissed for 105 runs by Umesh Yadav, caught by Rohit Sharma. And then Yadav removed Finch for 81, right after Smith’s dismissal.

Maxwell came in and hit some lusty blows before Ashwin accounted for him for 23, with Australia 3 down for 232 in 38th over. India looked to restrict Australia to 270-280 the maximum, but Shane Watson (28) and surprise package with the bat this time, Mitchell Johnson (27 off 9 balls) took Australia to a final score of 328 runs for 7 wickets.  Johnson’s lusty hitting at the end ensured Australia of an exciting total.

Umesh Yadav took 4/72, but the pick of the bowlers was R. Ashwin who took 1/42 in 10 overs and built pressure on the Australian batting. No team had made 300 runs batting second on the SCG, but India had the batting power to prove otherwise. While the Australian bowling powerhouses were determined to not let India do that.

Indian batting started cautiously with both the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan not taking many risks against Starc and Johnson. Rohit even had a close call with a catch taken by Watson went to 3rd umpire who decided it bounced before Watson caught it and then Shikhar Dhawan was dropped by Brad Haddin.

Dhawan and Rohit then started making some runs with both hitting sixes and fours, starting to increase the run rate. India reached 76 in 12th overs with Shikhar Dhawan on 45, who went for an expensive shot against Hazlewood and holed out to Maxwell in covers. Virat Kohli took his time after this making 1 in 12 balls and then throwing his wicket away trying to pull Mitchell Johnson from outside the off stump and giving a catch to keeper Haddin. This demoralised the crowd so much that some of them even had tears in their eyes. Rahane came in next and continued the single taking regimen.

Johnson then accounted for Rohit Sharma, bowling him through the gate after being hit for a six. Rohit Sharma went for 34 runs, just when he was looking brilliant and India slipped to 91/3 in 18 overs. Another tragedy struck with Suresh Raina getting cheeky trying to run the ball through 3rd man and giving the catch to Haddin off Faulkner. India slipped to 108/4 in 23rd overs. Rahane and Captain MS Dhoni came together to Australia outshine the defenders. Smith, Starc shape Australia up for the finals. What are the moments where India lost the match and the report:try to take India towards victory. Both of them added 70 runs for the 5th wicket, but a DRS call got Rahane caught out to Haddin off Starc for 44 runs. Ravindra Jadeja joined Dhoni, who was waging a lone battle at the other end, but was brilliantly run out for 16 by Steve Smith going for a tight single.

With 120 runs needed from 8 overs in the last, Dhoni decided to go for an all-out attack and greeted Shane Watson with 2 sixes, but the asking rate had got out of hand too much. Dhoni and Ashwin tried their best, but in the end, a run out ended whatever hopes remained, when Maxwell hit the stumps to run Dhoni out for 65 runs off 65 balls. For once, even the Captain cool gave up on the run as well as on the World Cup.

The rest of the batting couldn’t do much with Faulkner picking 2 wickets of Ashwin and Mohit in 2 balls. India was finally bowled out for 233 with James Faulkner taking 3/59 and Starc taking 2/28 including the last Indian wicket of Umesh Yadav.

India lost to a better bowling side than them, losing early wickets which proved to be the deciding factor in their run chase, with the ever dependent Kohli failed and Dhawan threw his wicket away at the worst possible moment. There was too much to do in too little balls for MS Dhoni to do any miracles. In the end Australia was the better team and India lost due to their mistakes. But 11 straight wins in World Cup is one record India will cherish always.

Steve Smith got the Man of the match for his brilliant 105 which was the difference between Australia making 328 and 270.

Australia will now meet New Zealand, their fellow hosts in the final on 29th March 2015 in the scenic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

Brief Scores
Australia 328/7 (S Smith 105, A Finch 81; U Yadav 4/72) defeated India 233 (MS Dhoni 65, S Dhawan 45; J Faulkner 3/59)   by 95 runs.

Trivia and Records

# Over 2000 recorded sixes have been hit in World Cup history, the 2000th ‘SIX’ is hit by Finch off Mohit Sharma in 34th over.

# Finch-Warner’s 15 runs stand is the 3rd lowest opening stand for Australia against India in WC matches, lowest since 1987 WC.

# MS Dhoni has become the first Indian to reach 6000 runs as captain in ODIs, the 3rd after Ponting (8497) & S. Fleming (6295).

# MS Dhoni has become the first Indian to reach 1000 runs as captain in international matches in Australia.

# Australia never lost a WC SF, Australia never lost an ODI on March 26 (2 all won), India never won an ODI on March 26 (3 all lost).