India skipper Rohit Sharma lauded Virat Kohli for his crucial 84-run knock against Australia while also praising the contributions of the other batters, singling out Hardik Pandya’s huge hits at the death on his way to a quick 28 runs from 24 deliveries. On the back of these performances, India defeated Australia by 4 wickets and punched their ticket to the summit clash, scheduled for Sunday in Dubai.
“Yes, he’s (Virat) done it for us for many years. We were calm during our batting innings. We wanted that big partnership, which Shreyas and Virat provided, along with smaller partnerships between Axar, Virat, KL, and Virat. And then Hardik’s shots at the end were crucial,” Rohit said after the match.
He also talked about the nature of the surface, saying that it played slightly better on Tuesday than the one that was used in the last Group game against New Zealand last week.
“It looked better, but that’s been the nature of the surfaces here; they’re very uncertain. The surface today played slightly better than the one we faced against New Zealand. Our group talks about playing good cricket, understanding the situation, and not reading too much into what the pitch does,” Rohit said.
In the match, batting first, Australia were bowled out for 264 in 49.3 overs and India chased it down with 11 balls to spare.
Besides Kohli’s 98-ball knock, Shreyas Iyer made 45 while KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya chipped in with 42 and 28 respectively in the first semifinal.
Earlier, captain Steve Smith and Alex Carey struck fifties to guide Australia past 260.
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Smith top-scored with 73 off 96 balls as he stitched two crucial partnerships, first with Travis Head (39) for the second wicket, which yielded 50 runs, and then with Marnus Labuschagne (29) for the third for another 56 runs. Carey made 61.
For India, Mohammed Shami (3/38) grabbed three wickets while Varun Chakravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja took two wickets apiece.
(With agency inputs)