Key events
14th over: Australia 72-2 (Smith 23, Labuschagne 4) The ball hits the stumps but the bails stay put! A maiden over but it could have been more as Smith gets himself in a tangle, meets the ball with his pad and watches it dribble onto the stumps. But the bails don’t budge. The ball before there was half a chance for a run-out, if only the man at short fine leg could collect cleanly. A maiden over. pressure is building.
13th over: Australia 72-2 (Smith 23, Labuschagne 4) Varun is mixing it up, both out the hand with a couple of wrong-uns and sliders, as well as through the air with his pace. Must be a nightmare to face. They’ve got twpo catchers in for Labuschagne, one at a very straight short mid-on and another at short midwicket. Three singles off this over.
12th over: Australia 69-2 (Smith 21, Labuschagne 3) They’re content to be watchful for the time being. Just three singles off this Axar over. Tight lines and not too much flight means it’s not easy to get away.
11th over: Australia 66-2 (Smith 19, Labuschagne 2) Spin at both ends means we’re racing through the overs. Three singles off this one. Two for Smith who is now in a cap.
10th over: Australia 63-2 (Smith 17, Labuschagne 1) Another change as Axar joins the party. Smith watches one ball and then launches him down to a vacant long-on for four. A single off the last ball keeps the skipper on strike.
9th over: Australia 58-2 (Smith 12, Labuschagne 1) Success in his first over for Varun as he gets the big fish of Head who decide to take on the new bowler’s first ball. Why didn’t he give himself some time to set? Smith flicks a couple and Marnus is off the mark with a back-foot punch down the ground.
WICKET! Head c Gill b Varun 39 (Australia 54-2)
The bowling change does the trick! Varun’s spin comes into the attack and Head takes him on but doesn’t get enough wood on the drive down the ground. Instead it spoons up and it’s catching practice for Gill running in from the rope at long-off. Soft dismissal you have to say.
8th over: Australia 53-1 (Head 39, Smith 8) Head comes down the track and nails a straight drive for six off Yadav. Lovely swing of the bat and perfect timing. Great shot. Yadav then ups his pace and skids it off the deck, forcing Head to hang back in his crease. A couple of wrong-uns has Head in a bit of discomfort, but he survives.
Shami is off the field receiving treatment. Something’s up with his left foot.
7th over: Australia 47-1 (Head 33, Smith 8) After an uncharacteristically slow start, Head is in the groove. A delicious whip through midwicket for four and a single to short fine leg means he’s batting at 128 currently. Smith gets his first boundary with a lofted pull that trickles to the rope on the leg side. 11 off that over. Australia back in business after the early wicket.
Vasu Chaurey makes a valid point on where we should place the blame:
Just want to understand what BCCI is supposed to do here? It’s not the BCCI who’s refusing to go to Pakistan, it’s the government disallowing it. If they withdraw from the tournament, it’s viewed as throwing a tantrum when things don’t go their way. The onus is on the organizing body to refuse such requests. Yes, yes – “that will never happen since India generates revenue” – and the blame for this imbalance should fall squarely on ICC.
The BCCI is doing it’s job – it’s the ICC who’s failing at theirs.
My 10 cents is that the BCCI is now very clearly a branch/tool/muscular arm of the Indian government. Also the ICC knows who butters its bread.
6th over: Australia 36-1 (Head 28, Smith 3) Spin early doors and it’s Yadav with his tricky left arm wrist spin. Smith is up to it, swatting a single down the ground first up. Four more singles across the over as Yadav finds his range. This is the earliest he’s come into the attack in an ODI since 2017.
Ian [no last name] points to hypocrisy by nodding to history:
In prior times, teams who refused to play games in countries they had issues with defaulted the game (e.g. New Zealand not playing in Kenya at the South African World Cup).
The same should have applied to India this time around, but we all know that they now own the game. Sad times.
Quite.
5th over: Australia 31-1 (Head 26, Smith 0) Head has been unleashed. Rare width from Shami allows him to crack a back-foot scythe through cover for four. A lucky inside edge almost takes out his leg stump but instead adds four more to his tally. Then a lovely cut shot screams past backward point.
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?)
