India took revenge for the ODI World Cup 2023 final loss against Australia and sent the Mitch Marsh-led side on the verge of elimination from the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 following a 24-run win at Gros Islet, St Lucia on Monday. (As It Happened | Scorecard)
Travis Head, who has a history of doing well against India in ICC events, played a brilliant knock of 76 runs off 43 balls but couldn't help Australia achieve a 206-run target set by India in a rain-barred match.
Australian skipper Marsh decided to chase in a must-win game and invited India to bat first. His decision proved right when Josh Hazlewood got the wicket of Indian batting stalwart, Virat Kohli. He went for a five-ball duck.
This was the third instance in the ongoing ICC showpiece when Kohli was dismissed without disturbing the scorers. Before the T20 World Cup 2024, he was dismissed for a duck four times only in his 107 innings.
Rohit Sharma took the charge of batting and smashed 29 runs in the next over of Mitchell Starc. He hit four sixes and a four in the over. It was Starc's costliest over in T20Is.
Sharma continued to play aggressively and smashed eight sixes and seven fours in his 92-run knock. Suryakumar Yadav looked good and played a crucial knock of 31 runs. He hit two sixes and three fours in his short but entertaining inning.
Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya also played important cameos of 28 runs off 22 balls and 27 runs off 17 balls respectively. Starc and Marcus Stoinis took a couple of wickets each.
While chasing, Indian seamer Arshdeep Singh removed the opener batter David Warner on the last delivery of the first over. Surya took a fine catch in the slip.
Fielding remained a topic of improvement for the Indian side as wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant misjudged a simple catch of the Aussie skipper when he was struggling to connect the ball. Singh also dropped his catch while finishing his follow-through.
Marsh went on to make 37 runs off 28 balls. He was finally caught by Axar Patel near the boundary rope off Kuldeep Yadav's bowling. Patel took a one-handed screamer to break the 81-run partnership for the 2nd wicket.
Glenn Maxwell also looked good but couldn't score big. Kuldeep bowled him to blur the Australian hopes. He made 20 runs off 12 balls. Stoinis also lost his wicket while trying to find a gap off Patel's bowling.
The Australian hopes still were attached to the Head's batting and Bumrah dashed all hopes with his wicket in the 17th over. He hit four sixes and nine fours in his inning.
Arshdeep Singh took two more wickets in the next over and finished his spell with three wickets. Kuldeep Yadav took a brace of wickets whereas Patel and Bumrah shared one wicket each.
Rohit Sharma was awarded Player of the Match for his match-defining knock of 92 runs off just 41 balls. He also completed 200 T20I sixes and became the first batter to do so.
Now, India will face England in the semi-final clash in Guyana on 27th June 2024.
