India has wreaked vicious revenge on Australia in a 24-run World Cup win as the Aussies’ bid for T20 glory appears destined to end in a whimper.
The second-straight defeat leaves the Aussies praying Bangladesh can pull off a miraculous narrow victory against Afghanistan in the final Super Eights clash to get them through to a semifinal.
Having been beaten by Australia in the Test Championship and ODI World Cup Final last year, it was sweet revenge for India, with skipper Rohit Sharma unleashing all his pent-up anger to crash a near-unstoppable 92, including eight breath-taking maximums at 224.39.
Travis Head proved India’s bane once again with 76 from 43, but after Australian captain Mitch Marsh was halted by a ridiculous catch from Axar Patel, the rest of the Aussie line-up crumbled under the intense spotlight.
It means India remains undefeated as they join South Africa and England in the last four and leave Australia to rue insipid fielding efforts.
“It’s disappointing. We’re still technically a chance of going through to the semis but today India got the better of us,” Marsh said post game in St Lucia.
“I thought it was a good game and unfortunately we’re on the bad side of it. Over the coarse of 40 overs there are a lot of fine margins you could look at but ultimately India were the better team.
“Rohit Sharma got off to a flyer and as we’ve seen for 15 years, he’s very hard to stop when he’s in that mode.”
Australia came into the match with the worst fielding efficiency of any team in the World Cup, having dropped 14 catches, but they made the perfect start after bowling first as Josh Hazlewood (1-14) was rewarded for hitting the deck.
Losing his patience after four-straight dot balls, Virat Kohli tried to muscle a length delivery into the breeze over mid-on, but Tim David made the catch look simple running back with the flight.
Sharma answered the blow with four breath-taking maximums off Mitchell Starc (2-45), including a 96-metre bomb.
He had taken 29 runs by the time the third over finally ended.
Hattrick hero Pat Cummins’ (0-48) first ball was greeted with a six onto the roof, a blow so mighty it brought rain tumbling across Gros Islet.
But the minor delay didn’t halt the Indian skipper, who smashed the quickest half century of the tournament from 19 balls.
Sharma continued the carnage against Marcus Stoinis before the hulking all-rounder had Rishabh Pant caught at long-off.
India achieved triple figures in 8.4 overs, and just as a Sharma century looked assured, Starc found his radar, crashing into the Indian opener’s middle stump with a yorker.
The breakthrough allowed Australia to claw their way back into the contest, but Marsh added another embarrassing entry to his side’s fielding misery, dropping Hardik Pandya at backward point on four.
Pandya made a fatal unbeaten 27 to guide India to their equal-biggest total against Australia at a World Cup of 5-205.
In the chase, Warner was walking back to the sheds after just six balls, nicking off for five to Arshdeep Singh.
Marsh and Head launched a counter-surge, attacking spinner Axar and all-rounder Pandya to take 65 runs from the Power Play.
Pandya was a clear target for Head, who took two boundaries off his second over, including a six over mid-wicket that smashed a hole through signage.
However, their partnership was ended for 83 as Axar incredibly held on, through pure luck, to a powerful sweep shot from Marsh at deep square-leg for 37.
Head raised his bat for a half century in the next over, courtesy of three more boundaries off Pandya, while Maxwell had 15 from four deliveries.
Maxwell’s dismissal for 20, bowled after bizarrely walking at Kuldeep Yadav, left the Aussies on the ropes needing 78 from 41 deliveries.
The situation became dire as Stoinis was caught reverse sweeping for two off Axar.
Head did his best to power on but came unstuck on a perfect 126km slower ball from Jasprit Bumrah, fittingly caught by Rohit.
David and Cummins rescued some net run rate late as Australia limped to 7-181.