Ind-Aus will be juicy in spin paradise

It is official now. India will be meeting Australia in the second semi-final at Sydney on March 26. While India has been the story of makeover in this tournament, the Aussies have been adjudged the best team and the prospect of a juicy contest is already warming up the chirp in a city which houses the largest Indian population in Australia.

This would be the first time that India and Australia will meet after the harrowing Test and Tri-series that India struggled in throughout against Australia.

Team India, which is yet to arrive in Sydney, would be looking for answers to this highly competitive semi-final clash with the hosts, especially with the Aussies sporting a fiery bowling line-up led by top wicket-taker Michael Starc and batters who do not seem to have a tail-end.

India will arrive in Sydney on Saturday afternoon and will have four days to regroup for their last and final hurdle to the big Final at Melbourne on March 29. This, by all counts, would be the toughest match India will face in the tournament and skipper MS Dhoni would be working hard to strategise a safe passage through this one, on a ground which has not exactly treated them well on earlier occasions.

Australia’s journey to Sydney has been impressive except for the near miss it suffered in its clash against the New Zealanders where Starc’s stunning run with the ball (6-28) had the Kiwis reeling and struggling for victory. That was the only time that the Aussie batsmen had failed to fire.

India, on the other hand, are unbeaten in the tournament through seven matches, have bowled out all oppositions till now and not allowed a single 300-plus score against themselves with Dhoni already fielding queries on the “law of averages” which should logically mandate at least one defeat in the tournament.

However, the skipper brushes it off with poise pointing out instead how his squad will be going into the match with a lionised reputation built rosily around its bowlers more than its batsmen. One thing to draw for will be the fact that Sydney is a spin paradise on which an attacking Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja would have no reason to not come into their own against the Australians who often struggle against spin attacks. Ashwin has been in the form of his life, stirring up even dead pitches by varying pace and flighting the ball, not afraid of being taken to the cleaners.

Jadeja, on his part, is just about peaking at the right time, both with the bat as he showed in the quarter-final against Bangladesh where he did the most important job of keeping up the run momentum in the death overs by scoring a rapid fire 23 off 10 balls, as also the ball. And Dhoni has already said on many an occasion that if his bowlers just keep bowling in the right areas and not get carried away by options, more than half his job is done. Perhaps, March 26 will be executing this to the T.