ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024: India beat Australia by 24 runs; to meet England in semifinals

India stormed into the semifinals of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 after beating Australia by 24 runs in their Super Eight match in Gros Islet, St Lucia, on Monday. India will meet England in the semifinal on June 27.

Rohit Sharma set the tone for the win with a thunderous 92 (41 balls, 7 fours, 8 sixes) as India posted a mammoth 205/5 in their 20 overs.

Indian bowlers, led by Arshdeep Singh (3/37), Kuldeep Yadav (2/24) and Axar Patel (1/21), restricted Australia to just 181/7 in their 20 overs.

Travis Head led Australia’s chase with a well-timed knock of 76 but after he holed out Rohit off Bumrah in the 17th over, the chase was as good as over.

Head and skipper Mitchell Marsh added 81 runs for the second wicket after Arshdeep rattled Australia by removing David Warner in the first over.

The duo put on a good counter-attack display to put Australia’s chase back on track but it was Axar who brought India back into the game when he took a stunning one-handed catch at deep square leg to dismiss Marsh.

Head raced to a 24-ball fifty soon and Kuldeep castled the dangerous Glenn Maxwell for just 20 and when Bumrah dismissed Head with a clever change of pace, the contest was as good as over.

Earlier, Josh Hazlewood bounced out Virat Kohli for a duck after Australia elected to field after winning the toss. However, the joy was short lived as Rohit took the Australian bowlers to the cleaners.

He was harsh on Mutchell Starc when he clobbered him for four sixes in a 29-run over and Pat Cummins, who took back-to-back hat-tricks in his last two games, couldn’t make any difference either.

Rohit greeted Cummins by sending him for a monster six en route to a 19-ball fifty, his first of the tournament.

India raced to the 100-mark in the ninth over but Starc denied Rohit a wonderful century, in what could have been the first hundred by a batter in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup.

Suryakumar Yadav (31) and Shivam Dube (28) and Hardik Pandya (27*) propelled India past the 200-run mark to give the bowlers plenty to defend.