India underlined their title credentials in the ICC World Twenty20 crushing a demoralised Australia by 73 runs to bag their fourth consecutive win and finish Group B champions of the Super 10 phase in Dhaka on Sunday. Yuvraj Singh came alive in a dead match hitting 60 off 43 balls to guide India to 159-7 before Australia collapsed to 86-all out in 16.2 overs for their third defeat in as many matches in the tournament.
Australia were out of the semi-final race once Bangladesh lost to Pakistani in the day’s first match and they made no attempt to bring any consolation to it.
The men in yellow-green batted as carelessly as it could get and were shot out for their second lowest total, only a slightly improvement from their 79 against England in Southampton in 2005.
India’s win is also their second-best in terms of runs behind their 90-run triumph over England in Colombo in 2012.
India’s all three spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja, enjoyed some kind of success against the listless Australians with only three batsmen – Glenn Maxwell (23), David Warner (19) and Brad Hodge (13) – reaching double figures.
Ashwin led the attack to finish with career-best 4-11, which also enabled him to his second successive man-of-the-match award.
Sent in to bat first, India also struggled initially losing their first four wickets for 66 runs before Yuvraj and Dhoni shared 84 runs for the fifth wicket to give their innings some respectability.
Yuvraj, who has not been in great touch of late scoring just 11 runs in his previous two innings of the tournament, struck five fours and four sixes.
Dhoni provided him able support with his 20-ball 24 as India finally had some batting practice under their belts after three facile chases in their previous three matches.
India will now play the second semi-final of the tournament on Friday against the yet-to-be-decided runners-up side from the other group while Australia will end their campaign with a match against Bangladesh on Tuesday.
BRIEF SCORES
India 159-7 in 20 overs (Y Singh 60, MS Dhoni 24, V Kohli 23; B Hodge 1-13) v Australia 86 in 16.2 overs (G Maxwell 23; R Ashwin 4-11).
Result: India won by 73 runs.
Man of the match:
R Ashwin (INDIA)
-With New Age input
