India vs Australia, 1st Semi-Final (A1 v B2) – Live Cricket Score, Commentary
Varun Chakravarthy to Dwarshuis, FOUR, to third man
Kuldeep Yadav to Carey, no run, tossed up full on middle and leg, Carey gets forward to push to the left of Kuldeep Yadav who gets across and cuts it off
Kuldeep Yadav to Dwarshuis, 1 run, flat good length just outside off, Dwarshuis goes on the back foot and punches it down to long-on
Kuldeep Yadav to Dwarshuis, no run, thrown up full outside off, slower and turns away, Dwarshuis gets forward to drive, thick outside-edge is in the air but miles short of short third man
Kuldeep Yadav to Dwarshuis, SIX, Dwarshuis can hit them. We have seen that in the BBL. It’s tossed up full outside off, out comes the slogsweep and the ball flies over deep mid-wicket, over Gill’s head
Kuldeep Yadav to Carey, 1 run, 50 for Carey. Down leg, thick inside-edge on the flick and it rolls to short fine-leg. He needs to be there till the end for Australia
Kuldeep Yadav to Carey, 2 runs, good length outside the leg-stump, worked gently in front of deep mid-wicket and time for two, well-run
Varun Chakravarthy to Carey, 1 run, fired fuller on middle, Carey gets forward to drive to long-on
Varun Chakravarthy to Carey, no run, quicker good length on middle and off, hint of turn away, Carey goes on the back foot to defend
Varun Chakravarthy to Dwarshuis, 1 run, hint of width outside off, length and Dwarshuis cuts through backward point
Varun Chakravarthy to Dwarshuis, no run, totally flummoxes Dwarshuis. He plays down the wrong line by misses, it’s turned a hint from the sixth-stump line, on a length, Dwarshuis defends around the fourth-stump line and is well beaten
A slip in.
Just 15 runs from the last four overs. And this after the wicket of Smith.
Varun Chakravarthy to Carey, 1 run, fires in the quicker delivery, 110.9kph, on middle and leg, knocked to the square-leg area for one
Varun Chakravarthy to Carey, no run, hint of turn from a good length just outside off, Carey goes on the back foot and defends watchfully
Varun Chakravarthy [7.0-0-36-1] is back into the attack
Alex Carey has attempted six sweep shots in this innings so far (conventional, slog or reverse) fetching him 19 runs with three fours and a six.
Kuldeep Yadav to Dwarshuis, no run, another googly to end, fullish on middle, flicked wide of mid-wicket and Gill dives to his left and stops. Just one off the over
Kuldeep Yadav to Dwarshuis, no run, third dot in a row. Another googly and again on a good length, spins back in, Dwarshuis goes on the back foot to push it towards cover
Sundar on for someone.
AUS 231/6 (43.1)
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Australia chose to bat.
Stats view
Smith & Maxwell gone
Carey’s sweeps
Smith fifty
Australia’s selections
Smith vs spin
Varun takes down Head
Head’s tactics
Shami masterclass
Head dropped
Toss: Australia bat
He’s missed a full toss.
India went to their fast bowlers because spin wasn’t causing problems to the two set batters. They were desperate. Now they might try Varun or Kuldeep or whomever.
Though the man coming in is a pretty good spin-hitter. If its his day, he could be unstoppable.
Here’s Glenn Maxwell. Oops, he’s gone. Australia’s tail is exposed. India right back in the game.
A 280 total is now looking closer to 250 now thanks to a Shami full toss and an Axar Patel skidder.
Agar: Warne gave young cricketers like me hope
The world lost so much on this day in 2022.
Whether the sweep shot is a pest for spinners or not, it certainly is one for captains.
Alex Carey played four in his first 18 balls. The last of those to India’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and it went all the way. So in the next over, Rohit had mid-on up and square leg back and that meant as soon as Carey picked that Kuldeep had tossed the ball up a bit, he could wind up and launch it. He just had to beat the infield. Minimal risk for a boundary.
Smith is picking Kuldeep out of the hand. In the 28th over, he wasn’t. He reacted to a googly only off the pitch.
In the 32nd over, he stays leg of the wrong ‘un pitching on middle presents a straight bat to hit him with the spin and over the top. The very next ball, he closes the face of the bat because it is the legbreak and he finds a riskless single through midwicket.
India must be wishing this ball rolling back on the stumps had broken them
Australia are going at over 5 an over. India have simply not allowed that to happen in this Champions Trophy. They’re being run ragged by Steven Smith.
It is so much better watching a great batter on a not flat pitch. The options they take. The decisions they make. The shots they look for. The shots they avoid. The levels of concentration that little bit higher. The footwork that little bit sharper. Smith went through a period where he faced 10 straight dots. That didn’t bother him. He’s come out of that with a six and a four in his last seven balls.
But at the other end, Josh Inglis is gone. Jadeja gets one to sit in the pitch a little more than the batter expects and the back foot drive just pops up as a catch to short cover.
He’s had an eventful afternoon. He basically hugged Labuschagne at the bowler’s end which stopped any chance of sneaking a single. Later, he was asked to pull off the tape on his left arm. Now he’s got rid of Labuschagne lbw.
With Axar Patel batting up the order, and bowling in the powerplay, with Kuldeep Yadav turning himself into a designated death bowler and Varun Chakravarthy the flavour of the month (though he’s talented enough to remain the flavour for longer, as evidenced by his return to the bowling crease to challenge the new batter Josh Inglis, good captaincy) Ravindra Jadeja was slipping into the periphery. In the game against NZ, when he picked up his first wicket, he looked up and held his hand to his heart and it looked like he was relieved. He’s only got three wickets in the entire tournament.
Australia are very conscious of scoring against pace. Travis Head targeted Hardik Pandya in the powerplay and now when Mohammed Shami comes back for another spell, Steven Smith goes after him, to the extent that he’s putting his wicket at risk. An on the up drive almost becomes a catch, but the bowler drops it in his followthrough. It came back really quickly at him. You’d think that close shave – his second of the innings – would temper his approach but no. Very next ball, Smith shifts across his stumps and tries to scoop Shami. All this, btw, is after Smith had charged Shami too.
Andrew McGlashan: Australia’s selection for this game has prompted significant debate, particularly after Cooper Connolly’s troubled innings. It did feel like a big call asking him to open – he had previously done it briefly in the BBL where he struggled (average 7.75 from four innings) and once in a List A game. But the theory will likely have been to prevent other players having shift their positions as they filled Matt Short’s spot while also giving themselves Connolly’s overs of spin.
And that brings us to Tanveer Sangha. He’s a very talented legspinner and certainly part of Australia’s future. He would probably have played more by now if not for some injuries. But it goes against the grain for Australia to only have two frontline quicks. They were clearly swayed by the dryness of the pitch, but it’s hard to think it would have happened if Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood (or a combination of them) had been available. Have Australia gone too far to accommodate more spin options? Time will tell.
Australia are doing it well here. They aren’t getting stuck against spin. The singles are still on. The freshness of today’s pitch might have something to do with that. A used one in India’s last game meant their spinners denied New Zealand even that little bit of respite.
Also, Steven Smith is out there and he is exceptional at manipulating the ball. Of all his talents, his problem solving is what sets him apart and here he’s decided that he needs to come down the track to make his own length. He’s done that thrice in three overs – the 17th, 18th and 19th.
Marnus Labuschagne is getting into a groove as well, brings up the team’s hundred in just the 21st over with a sweep shot for four. India need to figure out a way to get past these two accumulators. Otherwise, they’ll have set up the game for the big-hitters down the order. Average score in this tournament in Dubai is only 235. Australia are tracking for something much higher.
He inside edges a drive that dribbles off his pads and hits the off stump flush enough for the ball to rebound off it and yet the bails do not fall.
Smith just watched it all happen. He had the opportunity to stop the ball’s progress but maybe he was worried if he tried he might break the stumps himself. That was the last ball of a maiden over (14th) from Axar Patel.
Already signs of what it might be like against spin – only 22 runs off five overs in tandem, and of course the wicket.
Kuldeep in the eighth over
Varun in the ninth, Head falls
Axar immediately brought on with two right-handers in
Varun in the 11th
Axar in the 12th. Plenty of cover on the boundary
Its only going to get tougher to play spin here
He was brought in as the wildcard. And he’s broken the game.
Head was able to see off Bumrah in the 2023 final. He falls to Varun, first ball he’s ever faced off him too at any level of cricket. Huge wicket, and a huge payoff on the punt India have made on this mystery spinner, their oldest ODI debutant.
Varun, soon after picking up a five-for in his last game, said he had one that spun to the right, one that spun to the left, and one that went straight on. He takes Head out with one that spun juuuust enough to the left to mess with the left-hander’s free swing of the bat.
He’s good on the cut. He’s good on the pull. He’s got these other uncanny shots as well, the pick-up in particular, which he’s already used to hit Hardik Pandya for a six over square leg and a four through midwicket and neither of those deliveries were particularly bad ones. They were just a sign that Head had got used to the lack of pace on the pitch and he’d picked out Hardik as a person to target inside the powerplay when only two fielders could be outside the circle.
Head isn’t just slam bam. He’s tactical too. Australia are 53 for 0 in 7.2 overs with seven of their eight boundaries coming off the bat of their talisman.
Three boundaries from Travis Head has forced Shami to shift plans.
Shami ends that over bowling over the wicket, from where he is slightly less effective. This is what Head can do with how hard he hits the ball. He changes the game.
Head was 1 off 11. Now he’s 26 off 19.
India normally use Axar Patel as their first spinner in the powerplay. But with Head out there, they are going to Kuldeep Yadav for the sixth over. It’s nice to see India aren’t dawdling on their plans. Rohit’s pulled the trigger early and went to one of his two X-factor bowlers.
But the fact remains one player is making an ICC semi-final play to his beat.
An over full of plays and misses ends with Cooper Connolly’s wicket
India have been very careful managing Mohammed Shami’s return from injury. They tested him out at home in a largely non-consequential bilateral series against England. His pace was down there, which suggests he was building up to his peak.
He’s looked loads better at the Champions Trophy. The legs are pumping again. He’s hitting the late 130kph which he always used to do. And most importantly, he’s getting the new ball to talk. All through that third over, he had Connolly waiting for the one coming in with the angle from around the wicket and then nipping away off the pitch. Eventually, he bowled one just right to take the edge.
A sign of how unhealthy the conditions are for strokeplay. Travis Head has played two attacking shots already – a slap through extra cover and a pull off the hips – but neither were timed and that’s rare.
Another mis-hit might prove to colour the rest of this game. Head popped a leading edge back to Shami in the very first over and the bowler dropped it moving to his right.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting marvels at the sound off Head’s bat. One of the best readers of the game highlighted how Head might look awkward at times but he still hits the ball so hard. That’s why the margins of error are so small. As soon as you stray, he punishes you to the fullest.
PS – what is it with bowling teams going up against Australia and starting with a wide?
This was Shami
And this was Hardik
Rohit’s luck with the toss continues. It looks like India will have to do it the hard way to make the final
Pretty dry surface, pretty dry square, Steven Smith notes. What he’s not saying is batting will get progressively harder. He also expects it to turn. Two changes: Connolly comes in for Short and listed to open. Sangha comes in for Johnson. Six spin options for Australia (with Connolly and Sangha coming in and Labuschagne’s all-sorts)
Rohit was in two minds about the toss and so he says it’s better to lose the toss. He also adds that in each of the three games India have played, the pitch threw up different challenges. That might be why he’s been insistent that playing all their games in Dubai hasn’t been an advantage. Same team, Varun keeps his place, four spinners
Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 Cooper Connolly, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Josh Inglis (wk), 6 Alex Carey, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Ben Dwarshuis, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Tanveer Sangha, 11 Adam Zampa
India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Axar Patel, 6 KL Rahul (wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Varun Chakravarthy
Temp’s at 29C. The pitch is not exactly central. 62m one side square, 69m the other side. Managing that with the spinners bowling will be crucial. You want to defend the short boundary. Average first-innings total in Dubai in the Champions Trophy is 235.
Rishabh Pant seems to have nicked someone’s camera. Steven Smith is obsessively stretching (and already in his uniform). Cooper Connolly is about to make his debut with the tournament in the pointiest of ends. Will he open the batting too with Matt Short injured? Or will it be Josh Inglis, with whom Travis Head was hanging out pitch-side already hatching the next great Indian heartbreak.
Kumble feels India should play all four spinners in semi-final vs Australia
We are hearing that a fresh pitch will be used for this semi-final. Spin will still play a big part and India possess three that are so good at doing the basics right. Axar Patel, for example, was impeccable at holding an unhittable length against New Zealand. He has no mystery yet some of the best batters in the game – Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham – were made to play at his discretion.
Australia will want to prevent Axar and Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav from doing things like that. And they do possess batters more than capable of pulling it off. There’s he who has been memed.
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Then there’s he who hates his own nickname
Maxwell’s Big Show against spinners is the contest to watch out for
Then there’s he who is the best since Bradman
Agar on Smith’s captaincy: ‘It’s like he has god’s hands on his brain’
Rohit: The pitches in Dubai have been challenging
Have you ever sat around with your people and looked back on a… Champions Trophy game? A tournament that began as a knockout, gained acclaim as a mini-World Cup, then vanished without a trace and is now back as not just a fixture but a vehicle for good, bringing an ICC tournament back to a part of a world that was starved for it. Not everything has gone according to plan. There is plenty of rumbling not even behind the scenes about some of the decisions made to make this whole thing happen but this semi-final and the two teams taking part in it have the quality to put all that to bed over the course of just one day.
Smith on India’s spin threat – ‘We’re ready and up for the challenge’
The cricket takes centre stage in Dubai in less than two hours time. Simple bat-ball stuff played by people so good at it the scientists at NASA wouldn’t be able to explain what happens.
It’ll be nice to one day sit around with our people and look back on this day. A Champions Trophy game for the ages. It’s India vs Australia.
My name is Alagappan Muthu. Thank you for joining me.
Current Over 44 • AUS 231/6
Stats highlights from the first Champions Trophy semi-final between Australia and India in Dubai
The Australian opener played nine balls and missed six in a row before edging behind for a duck
Tune in for all the action, stats, news, analysis and colour from the first semi-final of Champions Trophy 2025
Australia had arrived in Dubai not knowing whether they would be staying in Dubai, or heading to Lahore for the second semi-final
It’s a mismatch India are primed to exploit, and Australia will need to find ways to stop that happening
Smith & Maxwell gone
Australia cruising
Remembering Warnie
Carey’s sweeps
Smith in control
Smith fifty
Jadeja strikes
Australia target pace
Australia’s selections
Smith vs spin
A life for Smith
Spin slows it down
Varun takes down Head
Head’s tactics
Head is off
Shami masterclass
Head dropped
Toss: Australia bat
Sights and sounds
Spin to win
Welcome
India’s astonishing bad luck at the toss; Varun gets Head first ball
Shami vs Connolly: A different kind of six and out
Live Report – Smith and Maxwell gone as India hit back hard
‘We guessed right in the end’ – Smith relieved fixture tangle worked in Australia’s favour
Can Australia’s weakened bowling stand up to India’s top-order might?
ICC Champions Trophy
| Player Name | R | B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| caught | 39 | 33 | |
| caught | 0 | 9 | |
| bowled | 73 | 96 | |
| lbw | 29 | 36 | |
| caught | 11 | 12 | |
| not out | 50 | 49 | |
| bowled | 7 | 5 | |
| not out | 15 | 21 | |
| Extras | (w 7) | ||
| Total | 231(6 wkts; 43.3 ovs) | ||
| Player Name | O | M | R | W | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 0 | 27 | 2 | 3.85 | |
| 4 | 0 | 34 | 0 | 8.5 | |
| 8 | 0 | 44 | 0 | 5.5 | |
| 8.3 | 0 | 43 | 1 | 5.05 | |
| 8 | 1 | 43 | 1 | 5.37 | |
| 8 | 1 | 40 | 2 | 5 |
| Wkt | Runs | Players | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 4 | Travis Head | Cooper Connolly |
| 2nd | 50 | Steven Smith | Travis Head |
| 3rd | 56 | Steven Smith | Marnus Labuschagne |
| 4th | 34 | Steven Smith | Josh Inglis |
| 5th | 54 | Steven Smith | Alex Carey |
| 6th | 7 | Glenn Maxwell | Alex Carey |
| 7th | 26 | Alex Carey | Ben Dwarshuis |
| Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IND | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0.715 |
| NZ | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0.267 |
| BAN | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -0.443 |
| PAK | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -1.087 |
| Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SA | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2.395 |
| AUS | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0.475 |
| AFG | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -0.990 |
| ENG | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | -1.159 |
India v Australia: Champions Trophy cricket semi-final – live
Bowled ‘em! After spanking Axar for six with a mighty sweep, Maxwell goes back to one that didn’t get up as high as he thought it would and gets cleaned up. India are on a roll.
What a moment! Smith charges Shami, eyeing the big gap around extra cover, and misses the full toss. It felt so unnecessary given Carey’s work at the other end. But there you go, not Shami’s best ball but one of his most important wickets for sure.
Soft! Just as the partnership was gathering pace, Inglis spoons a tame shot straight to Kohli at short extra cover. Perhaps it held up in the pitch, but that was a weak attempt at the back foot drive. Neither forceful nor watchful and he pays the price.
Gary Naylor agrees:
Ramprasad Sridhar:
Morning Dan,
Trust you are well.
Deepak Puri:
Vasu Chaurey:
