Dubai: Indian bowlers were persistent but well-paced fifties from Steve Smith and Alex Carey carried a largely profligate Australia to a slightly sub-par 264 all out in the Champions Trophy semifinal here Tuesday.
Australian skipper Smith (73, 96b, 4×4, 1×6) won a good toss, but the batters could not exploit a much smoother pitch at the DICS, throwing their wickets away through silly shots.
Throughout his stay, Smith was the pillar of Australian innings, and was involved in three 50 stands — 52 with Travis Head for the second wicket, 56 for the third wicket Marnus Labuschagne and 54 for the fifth wicket with Carey (61, 57b, 8×4, 1×6).
Australia would have been in a much better position had two of those alliances bloomed into something more substantial. Each of them fell against the run of the play and it started with Head.
Few batters have a higher fortune quotient than Head and his cameo of 39 had several slices of fortune — a dropped catch by Shami off his own bowling in the first legal delivery of the match, a near run-out, and a couple of inside edges that missed the stumps by a whisker.
However, amidst all that, Head played some delightful shots such as a flicked six off Hardik Pandya and three fours in succession of Shami.
It helped the Aussies to recover from the early loss of Cooper Connolly, who opened with Head after coming in as an injury replacement for ruled out Matthew Short.
But Chakravarthy mitigated the Head threat when the left-hander skied him to a running-in Shubman Gill in the deep.
Labuschagne played back and across to a straighter one from the impressive Ravindra Jadeja (2/40) to get trapped in front.
Josh Inglis looked comfortable but a feeble uppish push off Jadeja ended in the hands of Virat Kohli at short covers.
However, Smith chugged along nicely with excellent control over batting and his thumping straight six off Jadeja was a piece of art in timing and power.
However, a rather mindless charge at a full toss from Shami ended his stint, as the ball crashed onto the stumps.
Glenn Maxwell came to the crease in a perfect situation for him at 198 for five with 13 overs to spare.
A quick and judicious knock would have taken the Aussies to an impregnable position, but an inexplicable effort for a back-foot punch off Axar Patel saw him losing his stumps.
Carey carried on with determination at one end, and was engaged in a useful 34-run alliance with Ben Dwarshuis for the seventh wicket to see them past the 250-run mark.
However, Carey was run out while attempting for a non-existent second run, getting caught off the crease by a brilliant direct hit by Shreyas Iyer.
The task of scaling down a 250-plus total might not be a simple one in the semifinals, but India will not be unhappy as at one time they were staring at a 300-plus chase.
