AHMEDABAD – Australia’s dream run in the World Cups spread over the 12 years or so ended by, I would say, Yuvraj Singh rather than India.
India thrashed defending champions today by 5 wickets in the second quarterfinal of this World Cup; setting up a big semi-final clash with archrivals ‘Pakistan’, already qualified beating West Indies yesterday.
It was looking impossible to get to the target of 261 once Indian skipper MS Dhoni (7) threw his wicket and India was struggling on 187/5; but that was all for the Aussies as Yuvraj Singh (57*) and Suresh Raina (34*) led India to an easy victory in the end in 47th over.
Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir also played a handy knocks of 50 odd runs; while Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli contributed with 15 and 24 runs respectively.
Earlier, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Skipper Ricky Ponting looked in good nick first time in this world cup and completed his century; but couldn’t last long after that and fell on 104 runs. Other significant contributions came from Brad Haddin (53) and David Hussey (38*).
Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh picked up 2 wickets each.
Yuvraj Singh named man of the match for his outstanding brilliance in batting and bowling.
Now India will face Pakistan in the semi-final on March 30.
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