WE have been saying for a while now how India’s bowlers have been one of the pleasant surprises of this World Cup. But at the SCG yesterday, a man who’s amassed plenty of runs against them all summer, returned to torment them.

Australia skipper Michael Clarke won a good toss on what we always expected to be a good batting wicket, but you’ve still got to go out there and make it count. Steve Smith did exactly that, playing an innings of absolute class which was instrumental in Australia reaching their seventh World Cup final.

The hosts had been badly missing a good start by the openers and their wait was to continue when Umesh Yadav got Warner out early. It thus brought Smith out at a crucial stage as he would have felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders if Australia were to go on and make the most of that batting strip.

The key to that, as I had stated yesterday, was ensuring you had a good amount of batting to come by the 30th over or so. And Smith went about building his innings along those lines. You wonder whether India’s in-form bowling unit could have built more pressure on Australia’s batsmen, but then Smith just seemed to make it look so easy.

AUSTRALIAN opener Aaron Finch plays a shot during his 81-run knock against India.—AP

They were on course to posting around 350-360 at one point but without taking anything away from India’s bowlers, the reason that didn’t happen was largely due to some of Australia’s batsmen perishing to poor shots.

Aaron Finch fell to the short ball just after Australia had lost the big wicket of Glenn Maxwell, and when the hosts eventually finished on 328, you’d have thought M.S. Dhoni would have been fairly pleased.

History was still against India though as no team had ever chased over 300 in a World Cup knockout game.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan did give them a good start but when the score and stakes are that high, all it takes is losing a couple of wickets and the pressure intensifies. That’s what happened when Dhawan fell looking to up the scoring with Johnson then claiming the prized wicket of Virat Kohli a few overs later.

The task only got more complicated once Suresh Raina departed though Ajinkya Rahane and Dhoni kept India’s hopes alive with a much needed partnership. You know the game’s never quite over as long as Dhoni is at the crease considering his record in dire situations. On this occasion, though, it had slipped beyond the reach of even a player of his ability.

By Special Arrangement for Dawn

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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