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1st over: Australia 2-0 (Head 1, Connolly 0) Shami was millimetres away from the early breakthrough. Just mistimed his attempt at a return catch, palming it round the post as opposed to pouching the leading edge off Head’s bat. Head collected a single from a full blooded drive that was well stopped in the covers. Connolly swiped and missed at one. Apart from the wide up front, it was a tidy start with the ball.
Dropped off the first (legal) ball!
After bowling a wide first up, Shami found the leading edge of Head’s blade and it spooned back down the pitch. Shami stuck a hand out but couldn’t hold on.
Anthems done, Australia’s openers are suited and booted, and we’re almost ready to get going.
Shami with the ball. Head will face up first.
Not a brilliant crowd so far, but it’s still early on a work day.
Once they do start filtering in, I imagine they’ll be wearing blue kits.
Australia clearly think it’s going to turn.
They’ve switched the seamer Johnson for the leggie Sangha. Even Connolly at the top of the order gives it a tweak.
Rohit Sharma was in two minds as to bat or bowl first, so he says he doesn’t mind losing the toss.
He’s also downplaying the ‘home advantage’, arguing that the pitch has behaved differently every time. It’s a fresh deck, a dry one.
They’re unchanged.
India: Sharma (c), Gill, Kohli, Iyer, Patel, Rahul (wk), Pandya, Jadeja, Shami, Yadav, Chakravarthy.
Two changes for the Aussies.
The injured Matthew Short is replaced by Cooper Connolly at the top of the order. Tanveer Sangha replaces Spencer Johnson.
Australia: Connolly, Head, Smith (c), Labuschagne, Inglis (wk), Carey, Maxwell, Dwarshuis, Ellis, Zampa, Sangha.
Steve Smith didn’t hesitate. As soon as the heads call went his way, he declared his intent to “put some runs on the board and put some pressure later on”.
As with most battles against India, Australia’s hopes rest on how they play spin.
Steve Smith has highlighted the ‘middle overs’, that large chunk between the fireworks with the new ball and the launch of the death overs. Ordinarily this has been a period to take stock but India have changed the game by attacking this period with both bat and ball.
Daniel Gallan
We’re down to the final four, and on the evidence of the past few weeks, these are unquestionably the best teams of this year’s Champions Trophy.
We’re kicking off the semis with a big one. India, holders of the T20 World Cup, take on Australia, holders of the 50-over World Cup. This tournament doesn’t quite rank alongside those other two, but both sides will be keen to add to the silverware back home.
They’re both unbeaten. India, aided by the familiarity of the same hotel and playing conditions used throughout their competition – something that has been widely, and rightly, criticised – have thwacked Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand. Australia have tip-toed into the knockouts after two rained-off matches. They did spank England, though that doesn’t reveal too much about their form.
Does this mean that India are the better prepped of the two? Possibly, but the Aussies, more than any other side, have a knack of humbling the Indians. And this is an ICC event and you’d be a fool to bet against the men in canary yellow.
Sure there’s politics, sure there are existential questions about the format, sure there’s the stink of gerrymandering, but let’s try forget all that for a few hours. This has all the ingredients of a cracking game of cricket, one that’s too close to call and stacked with superstar talent.
I hope you’re as excited as I am.
If you’ve got some thought’s you want to share, be sure to ping me a mail.
I’ll be back in about 20-odd minutes with some updates with the toss and team news to follow.
First ball at 1pm in Dubai, 8pm in Sydney and 9am in London (does that cover enough bases?)
