The World Cup is nearing an exciting finish. With Australia defeating Pakistan, it sets up an intriguing clash against India in the semifinals at the SCG on Thursday. Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz bowled his heart out but without enough runs to defend, it is always a difficult job. All that the Aussie batsmen had to do was to see off that one spell and once it was over they romped home comfortably. Had Pakistan scored close to 300, then their bowlers could have put more pressure on the hosts.
Matches against Australia are more intense as they have become the second biggest rivals for the Indians after Pakistan. Going by the form of both the teams, India will be aiming to maintain their momentum, while Australia will be eager to cash in on the home advantage. Australia will be pressing for a bouncy pitch which will aid their pacers — Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson — and will be far from happy if the pitch assists the spinners. With Indian spinners performing well so far, they will not like a track that turns.
The key essence to win for both teams is to keep wickets in hand at the top and then go all out at the death. For both the teams, their top-order needs to fire and one among them should try and bat the entire 50 overs. When that happens, more often than not, teams will have a good total on board to defend and that will give a better chance for the side to win.
Batting first or not, both sides need to be careful of not losing wickets at the top. If they lose two-thee wickets before 15 overs then it will leave too much for the middle-order to do.
Bowlers have done well for both the sides hence the strategy will revolve around how the batsmen identify the key parts while batting. For India, the top-order has been amongst runs and that augurs well. In a big match against Australia like the semifinal of a World Cup, one will expect a player like Virat Kohli to rise to the occassion. He did well against the Aussies in Test series.
As far as Indian bowling goes, they might have watched Pakistan bowlers peppering Australians with short-pitched bowling. But Indian bowlers should be cautious and not over use them. They should stick to their plan that has been paying them rich rewards. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav should pitch it up with the new ball.
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