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Sunday 27 March 2016

ICC World T20 Super 10's WI V AFG & IND V AUS

Australia 160-6 (20 overs): Finch 43 (34), Pandya 2-36
India 161-4 (19.1 overs) : Kohli 82* (51)
India win by six wickets

Virat Kohli's brilliant unbeaten 82 led hosts India to a six-wicket victory over Australia and a place in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20.

Kohli expertly marshalled a chase of 161, taking 32 runs from the last 11 balls he faced to allow MS Dhoni to win it with five balls to spare.

Earlier, Australia raced to 50 from only 22 deliveries but were dragged back to 160-6.

India will meet West Indies in the last four in Mumbai on Thursday.


Australia go out, ending the international career of Shane Watson, who announced his retirement on Thursday.

Classy Kohli does it again

Kohli is a master of the run chase, the right-hander averaging 83.60 in the second innings of T20 internationals before walking out to bat in Mohali.

Steady Indian progress and the regular fall of wickets left the hosts needing 39 from three overs, the required rate higher than any other point in the innings.

Until then, Kohli had mainly settled for manoeuvring the ball and running hard, but launched his attack on James Faulkner, taking a boundary square either side then carving six over long-off.

Twenty were still needed from two, only for Kohli to drive, pull and slap four boundaries from the next over delivered by Nathan Coulter-Nile.

All was left was for skipper Dhoni to hit the winning boundary off Faulkner and, in the end, it was not close.

Australia pegged back

For a time at the beginning of their innings, Australia looked set to move out of sight as Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch punished the wayward bowling of Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin.

But after Ashish Nehra had Khawaja caught behind, India clawed their way back into the contest through the left-arm spin of Ravi Ashwin and Yuvraj Singh, though Australia will be aggrieved at the decision to give captain Steve Smith caught behind off Yuvraj

Glenn Maxwell was bowled by a slower ball from the returning Bumrah just as he was beginning to look dangerous and the late acceleration did not materialise.

Peter Nevill did take 10 from the last two balls of the innings, the only two he faced, but it was not enough.

India peaking at the right time?

India began the tournament as huge favourites to become the first host nation to win the World T20, but were stunned in a defeat by New Zealand in their opening match.

They then needed a remarkable last-ball victory against Bangladesh, who needed only one run from three deliveries, to stay in the competition.

However, this was their most impressive display so far and, with Kohli in supreme form, they will again be heavily fancied to add to their triumph in the inaugural tournament of 2007.


Peaking at the right time has been vital in previous World T20s - no team has ever gone unbeaten - and India may be doing just that.


Afghanistan 123/7 (20/20 ov)
West Indies 117/8 (20/20 ov)
Afghanistan won by 6 runs

West Indies set up a semi-final with Australia or India despite suffering a shock six-run defeat by Afghanistan.

Batting first, Afghanistan recovered from 56-5 to post 123-7, with Najib Zadran hitting a composed unbeaten 48.

West Indies, who had won their first three matches, slumped from 79-3 to 117-8 to hand Afghanistan their biggest ever win, but still top Group 1.

The result confirms that England will play New Zealand on Delhi on Wednesday in their semi-final.

West Indies - who rested Chris Gayle for this game - will play their semi-final in Mumbai on Thursday.

Afghanistan return home having lost their first three games at this stage, but they will be buoyed by their first-ever victory over a Test-playing nation other than Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

Afghanistan claim their biggest scalp

It was a fully deserved win for Asghar Stanikzai's side, who had given South Africa and England major scares in their two previous matches.

They had failed to capitalise on reducing England to 56-6, but this was initially a much less promising performance as they lost early wickets to the spin of Samuel Badree and Sulieman Benn.

However, from 76-5 after 15 overs, they came to life, with Zadran swatting four fours and a six to give them something to bowl at.

On the same Nagpur pitch where New Zealand defended 126 against India, Afghanistan - playing four spinners - were always in the game.

After three early wickets, a partnership of 41 between Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin seemed to have rescued West Indies, but when Ramdin was out stumped, Afghanistan seized their chances, with Mohammed Nabi taking two wickets and bowling a nerveless final over to seal victory.


However, with only 10 teams due to participate at the 2019 World Cup, this could be the last we see of Afghanistan in a major tournament for some time.


Batting worries for West Indies

The West Indies advance to the last four for the third World Twenty20 in a row, but they will have major concerns after another brittle performance by their batting line-up.

Having only narrowly chased 123 against South Africa, this time they came unstuck, with only Dwayne Bravo (26) and Johnson Charles (22) passing 20 as five wickets fell to spin.

Carlos Brathwaite hit two sixes to give them hope, but with 10 required off the final over, he was brilliantly caught by Najib at cow corner.

To add to the West Indies' worries, Andre Fletcher - who hit 84 not out against Sri Lanka - retired hurt and would seem to be a major fitness doubt for the semi-final.


But Darren Sammy's side will be confident in their bowling, which was once again excellent, with Badree's 3-14 the standout performance.

What they said

Afghanistan captain Asghar Stanikzai: "Winning this match is very important. We needed one win in this tournament after missing two good chances to get one.

"Today the guys played really well. We thought we might be short 15 runs or so, but we still bowled very well and fielded very well, Najib especially."

West Indies captain Darren Sammy: "We're disappointed, but we're not going to let it dampen our spirits. They played well and we need to find a way to chase down those small totals.

"We have a semi-final and we're looking forward to that. We've done the most important part, which is get through to the last four.


"We were just looking to win the match. It would have been good to win all four, but we understand that this was the only one we could afford to lose in terms of winning the trophy."

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