Rohit powers India into semis; Australia’s hopes take a hit

India 205 for 5 (Rohit 92, Hazlewood 1-14) beat Australia 181 for 7 (Head 76, Arshdeep 3-37, Kuldeep 2-24) by 24 runs

Rohit’s rampage

Pitch it up and get punished

Australia played into Rohit’s hands a little. Starc, for example, kept going full. It’s his one job. Try to find swing. Try to break stumps. But at the Daren Sammy Stadium, that was the wrong length. Josh Hazlewood showed the way there. He pitched up only two times in his entire spell and those were yorkers. Every other ball was on a length or just short of it and he came away with figures of 1 for 14. Rohit was invited to play his front-foot shots 24 times and he scored 71 runs, including seven of his eight sixes and five of his seven fours.

Rohit’s shots

Six of the 11 overs that Rohit was out there for went for double-digits. He was playing shots that he sometimes indulges in when he’s 200 not out in ODI cricket. Like going down on one knee and slog sweeping Pat Cummins, who came into this game with back-to-back hat-tricks, for a six that thudded onto the roof of the stadium. He came down the track like water flowing down a cliff – so devastatingly smooth – and smacked Marcus Stoinis on the up over extra cover. He even tried a version of the scoop but ended up with a version of the pull – new addition to the playlist – but the bottom line was everything he was doing was working for him. Even a defensive push to cover had such an aura behind it that Australia ended up misfielding and giving up a second run.

Starc’s recovery

India scored 10 fours and 10 sixes while Rohit was at the crease. After he fell, they could manage only nine combined. Starc deserves credit for that. He came back in the 12th over, shifted his angle around the wicket to deny Rohit the freedom of his arms, and although he still went full, this time he took pace off and that made enough of a difference. The bat couldn’t touch ball and the stumps lay broken. Starc’s slower delivery took out Suryakumar Yadav too, right in the middle of a masterclass of his own, scoring his runs in a way that don’t always make sense. Cummins, once again, was the unlucky recipient as a ball that was closer to the wide line ended up with a home on the square-leg boundary.

India went 21 deliveries without a boundary between the 15th and 18th overs but they still managed a finishing kick as Hardik Pandya nailed three sixes in the final two overs to push the total past 200.

Head start

David Warner fell in the first over of the chase and now there is risk that his 6 off 6 might be his last international outing. Australia still had batters capable of dictating terms out there though. Mitchell Marsh took the wicket-taker Arshdeep Singh for two fours and a six in an over and Head did even better by hitting Jasprit Bumrah off the length he likes to bowl with the new ball. That made the India quick turn to plan B – yorkers – and under pressure even he missed one and bowled a full toss. Australia finished the powerplay at 65 for 1, five runs better than India. Marsh’s power game and Head’s incredible skill at clearing his front leg and somehow opening vast swathes of the outfield on both sides had flipped the script.

Axar’s sensational catch

India needed something special and it arrived in the form of Axar Patel. He was a few yards off the fence at deep square leg, which seemed like an error considering it was Marsh on strike. The slog sweep flew off his bat. Flat. Hard. Destined to go for six. A support staff member was even ducking for cover fearing it would beat the fielder. But Axar didn’t let it. He leapt up, went for it with both hands, and got it with just his right. It was one of those that had to stick and it did. Every last one of his team-mates ran up to him to celebrate that wicket. Against the run of play, a partnership of 81 off 48 was broken.

Kuldeep’s intervention

Glenn Maxwell was busy negating the advantage India had thanks to the quality of their spinners. He saw that Ravindra Jadeja had no one on the boundary at third man and for that reason alone he went reverse sweep, which meant he was hitting with the turn, but against the wind, which when it was strong enough to basically carry Hardik away as he was running in to bowl, is a significant problem. Maxwell’s wrists somehow overcame that. He was looking dangerous. Maybe enough to take on Kuldeep Yadav. So he charged at India’s wristspinner and got bowled. That googly should be framed up on a wall somewhere. It messed with Maxwell on so many levels. It was slower than he wanted it to be. It was shorter than he needed it to be. It turned the exact opposite way. And it left his stumps a mess. The dip on that ball was everything.

India struck twice in the three overs that followed, one of which was Bumrah foxing Head with a slower ball. Needing 53 from the last 18, the best Australia could do from there was reduce the margin of defeat.