——— South Africa create record after beating West Indies
Sports Desk
Gros Islet: India sealed victory over Australia by 24 runs in the Super Eights match of the T20 World Cup 2024 played at Daren Sammy Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, and secured a semi-final berth.
Kuldeep Yadav starred for India with the ball as his economical spell of 2/24 in four overs helped them halt Australia’s charge with the bat.
India will now play England in the second semi-final of T20 World Cup 2024.
Chasing the target, Australia, just like India, had a terrible start as they lost David Warner in the first over.
After losing the first wicket, Travis Head and skipper Mitchell Marsh combined for 81 runs and put their side back in the game.
Marsh departed after scoring 37 off 28 with Axar Patel taking an absolute blinder on Yadav’s delivery. Following the captain’s dismissal, Glenn Maxwell came but he, too, couldn’t play a big innings and got bowled by Yadav’s googly.
Wickets kept falling but Australia were still in the game as Travis Head was still hitting the Indian bow-lers. However, in the 17th over, Bumrah removed the left-handed batter which was a massive blow for the Aussies.
Australia eventually concluded their innings at 181-7 in the allocated overs. For India, Arshdeep Singh got three wickets, Yadav two while Bumrah and Axar picked one each.
Earlier, the highlight of India’s innings was their captain Rohit Sharma’s explosive knock, where he scored 92 runs on 41 balls with the help of seven fours and eight sixes.
India started their innings poorly as star batter Virat Kohli returned to the pavilion without scoring a run. However, the dismissal didn’t stop Sharma from playing attacking cricket.
Sharma scored 29 runs to Mitchell Starc where he hit four sixes and a four, it was the over which start-ed Hitman’s charge on the Aussies’ bowlers which didn’t stop till the end of his innings.
The 37-year-old was on his way to complete his well-deserving century but Starc’s yorker ended his innings. As his knock concluded, the 37-year-old became the leading run-scorer in T20Is and had hit the most sixes in T20 World Cup history.
After Sharma’s departure, Suryakumar Yadav played a quick 16-ball 31-run knock while Shivam Dube scored 28 off 22.
Hardik Pandya down the order provided crucial 27 runs off 17 deliveries and helped India conclude their innings at 205-5 in 20 overs.
For Australia, Starc and Marcus Stoinis bagged two wickets each, Josh Hazlewood picked one while Pat Cummins and Adam Zampa went wicketless.
On the other hand, Securing an important victory against co-hosts West Indies in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024, South Africa not only confirmed their place in the semi-finals, of the mega tournament, for the first time since 2014, but also broke a record for most wins in the tournament’s history.
With their three-wicket win, the Proteas have now won seven matches in a row during the ongoing event — the most by a team in a single T20 World Cup.
Sri Lanka is ranked in second place with six wins in the 2009 edition of the T20 World Cup.
The Islanders are tied with Australia who also won six fixtures in 2010 and in 2021 tournaments.
Earlier in the day, South Africa beat West Indies by three wickets (DLS method) in a thrilling contest at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua to become the second team to qualify for the semi-final from Group 2 of Super 8 after England.
The Proteas had restricted the co-hosts to 135-8 in 20 overs after winning the toss and choosing to bowl first.
Chasing a revised target of 123 runs in 17 overs, since the match was affected by rain, the Proteas reached home in 16.1 overs for the loss of seven wickets.
Marco Jansen played a crucial unbeaten cameo of 21 runs in 14 balls to take his side over the line. He smashed a six on the first ball of the final over when his side needed five runs to win.
