Chase master Virat Kohli takes India to final

Chase master Virat Kohli once again proved why he is the best in run chases as he hit a well-composed half-century to take India to the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai on Tuesday night (March 4).

Photos from India vs Australia match

After restricting Australia to 264 all out at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS), India won by four wickets, scoring 267/6 in 48.1 overs. KL Rahul finished the game in style, hitting a six off Glenn Maxwell.

Kohli falls short of ton

Kohli was India’s top scorer with 84. When he looked set for a century, he fell, with India needing 40.

Also read: What Kohli said on missing out on hundred

The win also kept India in the tournament and also ended a 14-year wait for an ICC knockout match victory over Australia. Before Tuesday, the last time India beat Australia in an ICC knockout game was in 2011 World Cup quarterfinal in Ahmedabad.

Also read: How to buy tickets for Champions Trophy final

In the final on Sunday (March 9), India will play either South Africa or New Zealand, the teams that will face off tomorrow (March 5) in the second semifinal in Lahore.

Player of the match Kohli (84, 98 balls, 5x4) was the fulcrum of Indian batting.

Kohli had wonderful support from Shreyas Iyer (45) with whom he realised 91 runs for the third wicket, and steadied the ship after the early departures of skipper Rohit Sharma (28) and Shubman Gill (9).

Australia's inexperienced bowling

Australia were weakened by the absence of some of their premier stars including regular captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh, and Cameron Green.

The pitch used for the semifinal was fresh but much smoother than the ones on which the previous matches were played.

Kohli does not need a second invitation to exploit such conditions and a near-perfect control helped him keep pace with the asking rate.

Kohli's struggle point in an ODI innings is his inability to force the pace against spinners, but here the champion batter negated leg-spinner Adam Zampa, who had his number on a few occasions in the past, quite effectively.

The 36-year-old used the pull and drives, two of his most productive shots, to optimum effect. He placed him in the wide arc between sweeper cover and mid-wicket for easy, risk-free runs.

Maxwell drops Kohli on 51

He lost the company of both Iyer, who played some delectable shots, and Axar Patel (27) in rather quick succession but Kohli went past his 50 in 53 balls.

Maxwell dropped him on 51 off left-arm spinner Cooper Connolly, a perceived early signal of an inevitable Kohli hundred.

But it did not arrive as an ugly hit off Zampa ended in the hands of Ben Dwarshuis near long-on when India were 40 runs away from victory.

Rahul (42 not out) and Hardik Pandya (28) played some smart and aggressive cricket as India cantered home without much ado.

Smith, Carey half-centuries

Earlier, Indian bowlers were persistent but well-paced fifties from Steve Smith and Alex Carey carried a largely profligate Australia to a slightly sub-par 264 all out.

Australian skipper Smith (73, 96b, 4x4, 1x6) won a good toss, but the batters could not exploit a much smoother pitch at the DICS, throwing their wickets away through silly shots.

Throughout his stay, Smith was the pillar of Australian innings, and was involved in three 50 stands — 52 with Travis Head for the second wicket, 56 for the third wicket Marnus Labuschagne and 54 for the fifth wicket with Carey (61, 57b, 8x4, 1x6).

Australia would have been in a much better position had two of those alliances bloomed into something more substantial. Each of them fell against the run of the play and it started with Head.

Few batters have a higher fortune quotient than Head and his cameo of 39 had several slices of fortune — a dropped catch by Shami off his own bowling in the first legal delivery of the match, a near run-out, and a couple of inside edges that missed the stumps by a whisker.

However, amidst all that, Head played some delightful shots such as a flicked six off Hardik Pandya and three fours in succession of Shami.

Varun gets Head

It helped the Aussies to recover from the early loss of Cooper Connolly, who opened with Head after coming in as an injury replacement for ruled out Matthew Short.

But Chakravarthy mitigated the Head threat when the left-hander skied him to a running-in Shubman Gill in the deep.

Labuschagne played back and across to a straighter one from the impressive Ravindra Jadeja (2/40) to get trapped in front.

Josh Inglis looked comfortable but a feeble uppish push off Jadeja ended in the hands of Virat Kohli at short covers.

However, Smith chugged along nicely with excellent control over batting and his thumping straight six off Jadeja was a piece of art in timing and power.

However, a rather mindless charge at a full toss from Shami ended his stint, as the ball crashed onto the stumps.

Maxwell: Six and out

Maxwell came to the crease in a perfect situation for him at 198 for five with 13 overs to spare.

A quick and judicious knock would have taken the Aussies to an impregnable position, but an inexplicable effort for a back-foot punch off Axar Patel saw him losing his stumps.

Carey carried on with determination at one end, and was engaged in a useful 34-run alliance with Ben Dwarshuis for the seventh wicket to see them past the 250-run mark.

However, Carey was run out while attempting for a non-existent second run, getting caught off the crease by a brilliant direct hit by Shreyas Iyer.

The task of scaling down a 250-plus total might not be a simple one in the semifinals, but India will not be unhappy as at one time they were staring at a 300-plus chase.

(With agency inputs)