DHAKA: Steven Smith’s century coupled with Aaron Finch’s fifty helped Australia set a challenging target of 329 runs against India at Sydney on Thursday.

Australia scored 328 runs for seven in 50 overs in the 2nd Semi-Final of ICC Cricket World Cup at Sydney Cricket Ground. Smith and Finch scored 105 and 81 respectively.

Finch began Australia’s innings with David Warner on the other end of the crease while India’s Mohammed Shami bowled the first over.

Australia’ lost early wicket as Warner was caught by Virat Kohli in Umesh Yadav’s over when Australia’s score was at 15 runs in 3.1 overs.

Smith came to the crease and began assisting Finch then. They recovered the early loss, building a 182-run second wicket-partnership – the second highest in the World Cup semi finals.

Smith scored 105 runs of 93 balls, hitting 11 boundaries and two over boundaries until he was caught by Rohit Sharma in deep square leg area. Finch contributed 81 runs off 116 balls. Yadav removed both of them.

Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, and James Faulkner added 28, 27, 23, 23 runs respectively.

India’s Umesh Yadav was most successful, taking four wickets. Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohit Sharma bagged one and two wickets respectively.

Earlier, Australia captain MJ Clarke won the toss and decided to bat. The match kicked off at 9:30am. Both sides have made no change to their winning XI.

Former New Zealand cricketer, commentator and author Martin Crowe said Australia have never lost World Cup semi final. India have won 2 out 3. This will be a clash of styles.

Teams

Australia
Aaron Finch, David Warner, Steven Smith, Michael Clarke (capt), Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner, Brad Haddin (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood.

India
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami.
 
BDST: 1340, MAR 26, 2015