India defeated Australia by four wickets on Tuesday to enter the Champions Trophy final for the fifth time, avenging its defeat in the ODI World Cup final sixteen months ago and every defeat in the knockout matches of ICC tournaments for the past fourteen years and once again Virat Kohli was the hero of this great victory of Team India, although he missed the century.
With India’s victory, it was also decided that the final of the Champions Trophy will be played in Dubai on March 9 in which India will face South Africa or New Zealand. If Australia had won, the final would have been played in Lahore.
Australia batted first and scored 264 runs in 48.1 overs on the basis of half centuries from Steve Smith (73) and Alex Carey (61). In reply, India achieved the target with 11 balls to spare. ‘Player of the Match’ Kohli scored 84 runs in 98 balls with the help of five fours.
On 19 November 2023, crores of cricket lovers including captain Rohit Sharma had tears in their eyes when the Australian team shattered India’s dream of winning the World Cup in Ahmedabad. Apart from this, Australia has proved to be an ‘impenetrable fortress’ for India in ICC knockout tournaments in which the last time we were able to make a dent was in the 2011 ODI World Cup. All the wounds caused by all those failures were healed when KL Rahul gave India a victory by hitting a six off Glenn Maxwell on the first ball of the 49th over.
Kohli got good support from Shreyas Iyer, who made 45 and shared a 91-run stand for the third wicket after skipper Rohit Sharma (28) and Shubman Gill (nine) fell cheaply.
Kohli’s bat performed well on a batting friendly pitch and instead of playing big shots, he carried his innings forward with patience. Kohli, who has been unsuccessful against spinners in ODI innings in the last few years, played Australia’s spinner Adam Zampa very well here.
He played some great pull and drives in his innings.
Iyer and Axar Patel (27) lost wickets one after the other but Kohli completed his half-century in 53 balls. He also got a reprieve from Maxwell off spinner Cooper Connolly when his score was 51.
But he was out when India needed 40 runs after being caught by Ben Dwarshuis near long on off Zampa’s bowling.
Rahul (42 not out) and Hardik Pandya (28) played aggressive shots to take India to victory. However, the Indian bowlers also deserve credit for this victory.
Indian bowlers performed disciplined and bowled out Australia for 264 runs.
Australian captain Smith won the toss and batted first and scored 73 runs in 96 balls with the help of four fours and one six.
However, the batsmen could not take much advantage of the favorable pitch and kept losing wickets by playing irresponsible shots.
Smith was the architect of the Australian innings, who made three half-century partnerships.
He added 52 runs for the second wicket with Travis Head, 56 runs for the third wicket with Marnus Labuschagne and 54 runs for the fifth wicket with Carey. Carey scored 61 runs in 57 balls, which included eight fours and a six. Australia’s score would have been better if these two had played for a little longer.
Head, who often proved to be a headache for the Indian team, got many reprieves but he could not take advantage of them and returned after scoring 39 runs. Mohammad Shami dropped his return catch on the very first ball of the match, then he escaped being run out and twice the ball missed the stumps by a small margin.
Head hit some spectacular shots including a six off Hardik Pandya and three consecutive fours off Shami.
This also helped Australia recover from the initial setbacks. Cooper Connolly, who opened the innings with Head, was out early. Connolly got a place in the team due to Matthew Short’s injury.
Spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who took five wickets against New Zealand in the last match, dismissed Head whose running catch was taken by Gill in the deep.
Labuschagne was trapped leg before wicket by Ravindra Jadeja. Josh Inglis was caught by Virat Kohli at short covers off Jadeja.
Smith continued to score from the other end and hit Jadeja for a straight six. He missed a full-toss delivery from Shami and the ball hit his stumps.
When Glenn Maxwell came to the crease, there were 13 overs left and Australia’s score was 198 runs for five wickets. He had this golden opportunity but he got out on the ball of Akshar Patel and left without reaching double figures.
Carey added 34 runs for the seventh wicket with Dwarshuis to help Australia cross 250. He was run out by an accurate throw from Iyer while trying to take the second run. (Janadesh Hindi)
