Australia got half of what it needed to win today - a cantury from a top order player. And with calls for his departure louder than ever, and in what could have been his last match for Australia, their captain showed his class and resolve with a terrific century. However, Ponting's 104 (off 188 balls, 7x4, 1x6) didn't get enough middle order support, and Australia's 260 always looked a little light if the second half of the puzzle couldn't come together. Haddin provided some top-order solidity with 53 off 62, and the recalled David Hussey made a more than handy unbeaten 38 off 26, but Clarke, Mike Hussey and White made 23 off 50 balls leaving Australia vulnerable.
The second half of the problem that Australia needed to deal with was wicket-taking. The defending champions were forced to rely on their extreme pace battery of Lee, Tait and Johnson in the tournament, and on the generally slow pitches on hand, that was always going to be a risky strategy. However, without the necessary spinning quality there was really no other choice. Accurate medium pacers weren't going to get it done. As usual Brett Lee bowled his heart out, and when he took the wicket of Dhoni in a wicket-maiden to leave India at 5/187 after 38 overs, it seemed that India might bow out again. The pressure seemed to be getting to them...Gambhir's disastrous running, and Dhoni's wild swings suggesting that maybe they were better off without the crowd hanging on every run.
But despite a couple of collapses in this tournament, the Indian batting line-up does have depth, unlike Australia's bowling. Tait and Johnson couldn't back up Lee's wicket with a couple more to attack the tail, and some aggressive and calculated batting from Yuvraj Singh and Raina saw India comfortably home. Yuvraj finished with 57 not out off 65 balls, and along with 2/44 off 10 overs, won another man of the match trophy. Quite the tournament he's having - 341 runs at 113.67, and 11 wickets at 25 with an economy rate under 5. Along with Tendulkar, Sehwag and Zaheer Khan, this quartet have marched India into the semis, and are more than capable of taking them all the way.
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