ohit, Arshdeep, Kuldeep power India into semis with 24-run win over Australia

Gros Islet (St Lucia); Under sunny skies at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, captain Rohit Sharma unleashed carnage on Australia’s bowlers by smacking a stupendous 92 off 41 balls, which set the base for India’s 24-run win to enter the semifinals of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.

After Rohit’s fabulous efforts, where his fifty came in just 19 balls, helped India post a mammoth 205/5 in the Super Eight stage clash, a win seemed to be in danger as opener Travis Head cleared his front leg and smacked his shots all over the park in a valiant 43-ball 76, even as he found little support from other batters.

But with Kuldeep Yadav taking 2-24, including dismissing Glenn Maxwell, followed by Arshdeep Singh picking 3-37, Australia were restricted to 181/7 in the 20 overs. The result means India signs off from the Super Eight stage by maintaining their unbeaten record and will face defending champions England in their semifinal clash in Guyana on Thursday.

Australia now have their semifinal fate out of their own hands and if Afghanistan beat Bangladesh at St Vincent, they will be knocked out of the competition. Rohit was in the mood to go all out from the word go, standing head and shoulders above everyone to pulverize Australia by hitting seven fours and eight sixes at a strike rate of 224.39, leaving the fans breathless.

Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, and Hardik Pandya chipped in with 31, 28, and 27 not out respectively in a fabulous innings for India, where 15 sixes were hit –- the most maximums hit by them in a T20 World Cup game. Pushed into batting first, India suffered a body blow in the second over when Virat Kohli fell for a five-ball duck after his attempt to pull Hazlewood resulted in the top edge being caught by Tim David running 26m from his right at mid-on.

Starc tried to swing the ball into Rohit but bowled full and wide balls, which the India skipper lofted twice over cover for consecutive sixes. It was followed by Rohit hammering Starc over mid-on for four and slog-sweeping plus top-edging him (on a full toss) for two more sixes to take 29 runs off the third over.

Rohit welcomed Pat Cummins with an almighty slog-sweep going over the stadium roof at 100m before rain intervened. After a ten-minute rain interruption, Rohit continued to go berserk with a slice and top-edge getting him two more fours, before bringing up his fifty in just 19 balls.