India reach Champions Trophy final with win over Australia
Virat Kohli top-scored for the victors in Dubai.
India booked their place in the final of the Champions Trophy with a four-wicket victory over Australia in Dubai.
KL Rahul finished things off with a six to send India through to their third international limited overs final in three years with 11 balls to spare. They will face the winner of Wednesday’s South Africa v New Zealand clash.
Captain Steve Smith and Alex Carey passed 50 but failed to convert those scores into triple figures as India took wickets at regular intervals to limit Australia to 264 all out in the first innings.
Australia picked up two wickets inside the powerplay to throw the contest in the balance but Virat Kohli proved to be the glue that held the innings together with his 84 runs and Rahul hit the winning runs to fend off a late fightback.
Travis Head has proved to be India’s nemesis in the past after he blasted a century to set up their World Cup success in 2023 and the opener looked in fine fettle early in this contest.
After Cooper Connolly had fallen for a nine-ball duck Head hit a quickfire 39, including five fours and two sixes, before chipping Varun Chakravarthy into the hands of Shubman Gill.
Australia threatened to build big partnerships but India were quick to shut them down before they could really kick on.
Marnus Labuschagne built a 50-partnership with Smith until the former was caught leg before wicket by Ravindra Jadeja.
Smith got to 73 before he missed a straight full toss which went crashing into the stumps, before Carey was run out for 61.
Ben Dwarshuis offered some resistance down the order but Australia’s last four wickets fell for just 25 runs as India went into the break as favourites.
Gill went early and skipper Rohit Sharma was dropped by Connolly and Labuschagne but was unable to properly cash in after he was trapped lbw by the former.
Kohli held the innings together as he stuck with Shreyas Iyer (45) and Axar Patel (27) but Australia began to sense blood when Adam Zampa got his wicket 16 runs short of a century with India still needing 40 runs to win.
However, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya put on 34 for the sixth wicket, with Pandya’s pair of sixes in what proved to be the penultimate over swinging the contest India’s way, before Rahul clinched the winning runs to earn them a place in Sunday’s final.
