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4th over: Australia 17-1 (Head 12, Smith 0) The first boundary of the innings is one of pure belligerence from Head. Pandya slightly over pitches and the Aussie throws his hands at it and smashes it down the ground for four. Then a flick of the wrist and the ball is arcing over the fine leg boundary for six. A scampered single to backward point and two wides means it’s a handy haul for the Aussies.
3rd over: Australia 4-1 (Head 1, Smith 0) Lovely from Shami from round the wicket, angling into the left-hander and getting it hold its line after pitching on a full to good length. Connolly kept looking for width that isn’t there and eventually feathers one behind.
WICKET! Connolly c Rahul b Shami 0 (Australia 4-1)
Inevitable! After three consecutive swishes and misses outside his off stump, Connolly gets the faintest outside edge and has to go. Shami had him on toast, forcing some poor strokes away from his body as he was rooted to the crease. Not great batting to be honest. Lovely bowling and Shami is on the board.
“India running the cricket world”
That’s the punchy (and accurate) title of Colin Gould’s email:
How fair is that whilst Pakistan is supposedly hosting the Champions Trophy India gets to play all its games in Dubai, including the semi final and the final (if they win the former).
Every other team (Australia included) plays all their games in Pakistan (unless they had a match against India). Dubai is NOT Pakistan and the conditions whilst maybe similar are surely a huge advantage to the team (ie India) who have played ALL their games there.
If India was not prepared to play in Pakistan then they really should have withdrawn from the competition. This precedent might well be replicated in the future but I doubt any other country will get the favourable treatment that India has been accorded.
I agree it’s not fair. In theory India should have been told to stay at home, but that was never going to happen.
2nd over: Australia 3-0 (Head 1, Connolly 0) Pandya from the other end and he’s got it skidding through. Head hasn’t quite worked out the pace of the deck, first jumping at a lifting ball on his hips, then swishing at a pull shot that shoots just over his stumps. Apart from a wide down the leg side, Hardik is on the money with a string of dots to the fidgety Head.
1st over: Australia 2-0 (Head 1, Connolly 0) Shami was millimetres away from the early breakthrough. Just mistimed his attempt at a return catch, palming it round the post as opposed to pouching the leading edge off Head’s bat. Head collected a single from a full blooded drive that was well stopped in the covers. Connolly swiped and missed at one. Apart from the wide up front, it was a tidy start with the ball.
Dropped off the first (legal) ball!
After bowling a wide first up, Shami found the leading edge of Head’s blade and it spooned back down the pitch. Shami stuck a hand out but couldn’t hold on.
Anthems done, Australia’s openers are suited and booted, and we’re almost ready to get going.
Shami with the ball. Head will face up first.
Not a brilliant crowd so far, but it’s still early on a work day.
Once they do start filtering in, I imagine they’ll be wearing blue kits.
Australia clearly think it’s going to turn.
They’ve switched the seamer Johnson for the leggie Sangha. Even Connolly at the top of the order gives it a tweak.
India team
Rohit Sharma was in two minds as to bat or bowl first, so he says he doesn’t mind losing the toss.
He’s also downplaying the ‘home advantage’, arguing that the pitch has behaved differently every time. It’s a fresh deck, a dry one.
They’re unchanged.
India: Sharma (c), Gill, Kohli, Iyer, Patel, Rahul (wk), Pandya, Jadeja, Shami, Yadav, Chakravarthy.
Australia team
Two changes for the Aussies.
The injured Matthew Short is replaced by Cooper Connolly at the top of the order. Tanveer Sangha replaces Spencer Johnson.
Australia: Connolly, Head, Smith (c), Labuschagne, Inglis (wk), Carey, Maxwell, Dwarshuis, Ellis, Zampa, Sangha.
Australia win the toss and bat
Steve Smith didn’t hesitate. As soon as the heads call went his way, he declared his intent to “put some runs on the board and put some pressure later on”.
As with most battles against India, Australia’s hopes rest on how they play spin.
Steve Smith has highlighted the ‘middle overs’, that large chunk between the fireworks with the new ball and the launch of the death overs. Ordinarily this has been a period to take stock but India have changed the game by attacking this period with both bat and ball.
Preamble
Daniel Gallan
We’re down to the final four, and on the evidence of the past few weeks, these are unquestionably the best teams of this year’s Champions Trophy.
We’re kicking off the semis with a big one. India, holders of the T20 World Cup, take on Australia, holders of the 50-over World Cup. This tournament doesn’t quite rank alongside those other two, but both sides will be keen to add to the silverware back home.
They’re both unbeaten. India, aided by the familiarity of the same hotel and playing conditions used throughout their competition – something that has been widely, and rightly, criticised – have thwacked Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand. Australia have tip-toed into the knockouts after two rained-off matches. They did spank England, though that doesn’t reveal too much about their form.
Does this mean that India are the better prepped of the two? Possibly, but the Aussies, more than any other side, have a knack of humbling the Indians. And this is an ICC event and you’d be a fool to bet against the men in canary yellow.
Sure there’s politics, sure there are existential questions about the format, sure there’s the stink of gerrymandering, but let’s try forget all that for a few hours. This has all the ingredients of a cracking game of cricket, one that’s too close to call and stacked with superstar talent.
I hope you’re as excited as I am.
If you’ve got some thought’s you want to share, be sure to ping me a mail.
I’ll be back in about 20-odd minutes with some updates with the toss and team news to follow.
First ball at 1pm in Dubai, 8pm in Sydney and 9am in London (does that cover enough bases?)
