India defeated Australia by five wickets in the second quarterfinal match at Ahmedabad to end the current World Champions’ dream of a fourth consecutive World Cup title. India will now meet Pakistan in the second semi-final match at Mohali on 30 March 2011.
Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Shane Watson and Brad Haddin started cautiously adding 40 runs for the first wicket before Watson (25) was bowled by R Ashwin. Haddin then raised 70 runs for the second wicket with skipper Ricky Ponting. He made 53 runs from 62 balls with six fours and a six.
Ricky Ponting returned back to form with a superb century in what could be his last World Cup appearance. Ponting played 118 balls to score 104 runs that included seven fours and a six. None of the other middle-order batsmen provided the required support to their skipper as Michael Clarke (8), Mike Hussey (3) and Cameroon White (12) fell cheaply in a must-win game for their team.
David Hussey chipped in with an undefeated 38 runs from 26 balls including three fours and a six to take the score to 260/6 in their allotted 50 overs. R Ashwin (2/52), Zaheer Khan (2/53) and Yuvraj Singh (2/44) took two wickets apiece while Munaf Patel (0/44) and Harbhajan Singh (0/50) disappointed with the ball.
Chasing 261 runs to win, India got off to a decent start with Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar adding 44 runs before Watson (1/37) removed the dangerous Sehwag. Tendulkar looked at his best as he scored a fluent 53 runs that came from 68 balls and included seven fours. He added 50 runs with Gautam Gambhir, who himself made a 64-ball 50 runs. Gambhir also added 49 runs for the third wicket with Virat Kohli (24) before he himself was run out.
MS Dhoni made just seven runs and at 187/5, India needed either Yuvraj Singh or Suresh Raina to stay until the end to lead the team to a memorable victory. However, both the batsmen batted with immense confidence to add 74 runs for the unbeaten sixth wicket as India romped home with still 2.2 overs left.
Yuvraj made 57 runs from 65 balls with eight fours while Raina’s undefeated 34 runs came from just 28 balls with two sixes and a four. Yuvraj Singh was declared the man of the match for his all-round performance.