India breaks the Aussie Jinx ft. Kohli & KL

Hearts are safe and Aussies are home, Hopefully Kiwis are crushed so blazer celebration is On. I don’t know I come up with these things but everyone feels the same I guess. We were tensed and temperature was heated in Dubai. Penultimate thrill was on and it had many shades from the past. Let’s Play!

Head-ache and Smith 2015CWC 2.0

India Vs Australia, Semifinal, WC2023 or WC2015 was the continuous thought running in my mind. At the Toss we again lost it and asked to bowl on Fresh pitch and it looked like Australia was already ahead with winning toss and scoring big upfront. There was a Lot of chat about the team combinations and India sticked to the same combination but there was surprise from Aussies bringing in Tanveer sangha in place of Spencer. How often they do that and Smudge was spot on with team selection with Cooper Conolly at the top bringing in Spin as well.

Shami started well and almost had a wicket of Travis head very first ball but that was going to be a difficult catch in follow through. Never the less he made both the openers struggle with pace of wicket, Not easy for anyone coming from Pakistan roads to adjust on Dubai slow pitch. Shami went past Cooper 5 deliveries straight and we knew what’s coming up and that was it, Shami strikes and Smudge comes in. Travis head started his bashing game and he was giving headache to all of us. Bro survived a runout from Jadeja, edges past him were running to boundaries and he clearly had his luck. Kuldeep was brought in before Axar but that didn’t change anything.

Here Comes Varun and he relieves us from the pain on the first ball, Gill wasn’t going to put that down. How good this feeling of Head going without a Fifty against us.

Besties Smith and Labuschagne started what they do regularly, building partnership. Smith was giving a 2015 WC deja vu with his batting. They were playing Varun cautiously and hitting odd boundary regularly. Jaddu came into the attack and was targeting stumps as usual. He castled Labuschagne playing on front foot and he was angry with that shot. Josh Inglis came in and he was picking lengths well and playing on backfoot. Made things easy for himself. We surely didn’t want a new partnership and Jaddu too.

Inglis was caught pushing the ball to cover and Virat had easy catch. Jaddu pulled the momentum towards India and Australia was in spot of bother. Sir Jadeja and the art of comeback.

Fearless Carey & Bowling Comeback

Carey was playing fearlessly and runrate was going up. That made Smith play freely and Australia were cruising towards 300. No spin was giving results against the duo and fifty partnership was put on in no time.

Shami was brought back and Smith was done and dusted with his fulltoss hitting stumps. He missed it on speed and Lala provided a much needed breakthrough.

Maxwell was in for death overs at the right time. Axar was brought in and he did hit a six straight up to his favorite area Midwicket. Tried going again and Bapu crashed on to his stumps. Cinema! 300 was reduced to 260 with that wicket and the middle over recovery was going in vain in no time. Carey played his part and soon he was ensuring that 280 is around. It took a Gun throw from Iyer to dismiss him and we were back in it. That was truly a 20 run difference and Australia total was 264, still the highest on Dubai pitch this season. It was great bowling effort in the last 15 overs to pull things back from bowlers.

The Virat Chase

Rohit and Gill started the usual way and Rohit was giving no time to start attacking bowlers. Conolly dropped a catch of Rohit and we breathed for sometime till it went again to Deep cover the same way as 2023 WC Final and Labuschagne was after that catch just like Head and it spilled out of his hands. We were delighted of course and Gill was beaten with the pace edging on to the stumps. Gill in knockouts is a different story but we hoped for a better start. Rohit was charging on Nathan ellis and almost ended hitting Umpire. Terrifying scenes!

Spin attack was started from Connolly and he picked big fish. Rohit missed sweep and it was plumb. Sweep on this wicket is always a bad idea to go with but he wanted to go after it and we were 2 down. Iyer and Kohli started building partnership with singles and doubles. It was going fine and we were nearing a 100 partnership in no time. Iyer always saves the collapse and Virat doesn’t leave a chance for any bowler on his day.

We can just see how these two run between the wickets, play spin well, find boundary at will. This makes the team stronger and you can’t quantify the amount of pressure they soak. Virat was dropped after his fifty by Maxwell and it was so not Australia at the fielding and that was good for us. Iyer missed one from Zampa and he opened a door for them to come back.

All this while, No pressure nothing affecting this man. He always finds away ahead. He crossed Tendulkar in most fifties in ICC ODI events. Posted a Record for most runs by singles (5870). What an absolute beast of the ODI! Chase master!

Pandya’s AURA & KLassic Finish

Axar came and played a handy knock, After that KL and Kohli had to build the partnership for crossing the line. Both were taking the game deep with singles and doubles keeping it run a ball. Last 10 overs chase was dramatic, KL was taking risk and started with a four and six. It was looking an easy chase but Kohli took on Zampa just to hole out at long on. He denied himself a hundred and chance to finish the game. KL was disappointed as he wanted him to finish.

Hardik was on crease and playing dot balls. It felt like we are bottling it now and He started a flurry of sixes. Last two coming off Zampa on his last 2 made it so special. No look shots and both crossing the boundary. Talk about Aura!!

KL finished the game with a Six and he was truly looking like the one who broke the shackles and clearly over the demons of 2023 final. KL has his wings back now!

How happy these cuties are! Just can’t get over it. That has been our routine right? Watching the game and scrolling socials all night after that.

This team has lived in our heart from a long time now. Pure joy and nothing else!

We move to our last showdown against the kiwis. I just hope Conway doesn’t make it to XI and We will play out Mitchell Santner well. Gill, a knockout knock please.

Two of our pillars are having a crack at it again and we don’t know what happens after 9th. Hoping that Hitman is saving for the finals and a RoKo partnership is all we wish to see tomorrow!

Jai Hind!