T20 Cricket World Cup: Near perfect India take on under pressure Australia in final Super 8 game

Gros Islet, June 23

India will be out to derail Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign when they take on their shocked and under-pressure opponents in their final Super 8 game here tomorrow.

A third straight win for India will not only make them the group toppers and send them to the semifinals, it will also substantially threaten Australia’s chances of progressing through to the semifinals following the unexpected loss to Afghanistan.

Australia don’t have the destiny in their own hands and will be keenly tracking Afghanistan’s final game against Bangladesh.

India, who have had to endure heart-breaking defeats at the hands of Australia in major ICC events, would like to see a pre-mature exit of their strong rivals.

On fine-tuning their game ahead of the knockouts, India don’t need to do much having ticked all boxes in their back-to-back wins against Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Both Rohit and Virat Kohli played innings of substance against Afghanistan, while Shivam Dube, who had not been able to perform his role, answered his critics with a crucial knock.

Rishabh Pant has been getting dismissed off reverse hit often and it is something he would like to correct. The biggest positive for India in this tournament has been the all-round effort of Hardik Pandya, who has now come to the party with the bat to complement his incisive spells.

Kuldeep Yadav has taken little time to come up with match-wining contributions and he would be relied on for wickets in the middle overs.

With the team playing three Super 8 games with as many days of travel in between, the management will be tempted to rotate players but is unlikely to do so. India, who arrived in Saint Lucia on Saturday night, chose not to train ahead of the Australia game considering the hectic travel involved.

Smart batting

India have found their batting template for the World Cup, skipper Rohit said after the team beat Bangladesh. A string of attacking cameos powered India to their highest total in what has been a low-scoring tournament so far.

“I thought we played really well today, adapted to the conditions,” Rohit said. “Overall, we were clever with the bat and we used the conditions really well with the ball. Only one player got fifty but we still got to 196. In T20, you don’t need that many 50s or 100s. You can put pressure on the opposition in other ways. And all our batters tried to do that from the start. That’s how we want to play going forward, of course while respecting the conditions too,” he added.

“We have a lot of experience in our squad and I back the players to make those decisions. With Hardik in form, that puts us in very good stead going forward,” he added. — Agencies