Dubai: Virat Kohli did not finish the chase for once but his measured 84-run knock steered India into their fifth Champions Trophy final with a clinical four-wicket win over an under-strength and profligate Australia in the first last-four clash here Tuesday.
The Indian triumph ensures that the final of the eight-team competition will now be held here instead of Lahore, the original host of the marquee clash, as Rohit Sharma’s men will not travel there owing to security concerns.
Player of the match Kohli (84, 98 balls, 5×4) was the fulcrum of Indian batting as they scaled down 265 in 48.1 overs after Steve Smith (73) and Alex Carey (61) led the Aussies to 264.
Now, India will await the winner of the second semifinal between South Africa and New Zealand at Lahore on Wednesday.
Kohli had wonderful support from Shreyas Iyer (45) with whom he realised 91 runs for the third wicket, and steadied the ship after the early departures of skipper Rohit Sharma (28) and Shubman Gill (9).
Australia were weakened by the absence of some of their premier stars, but India had not beaten them in the knockouts of an ICC tournament since the quarterfinal of the 2011 World Cup.
However, Kohli was determined to correct that anomaly. The pitch used for the semifinal was fresh but much smoother than the ones on which the previous matches were played.
Kohli does not need a second invitation to exploit such conditions and a near-perfect control helped him keep pace with the asking rate.
Kohli’s struggle point in an ODI innings is his inability to force the pace against spinners, but here the champion batter negated leg-spinner Adam Zampa, who had his number on a few occasions in the past, quite effectively.
The 36-year-old used the pull and drives, two of his most productive shots, to optimum effect. He placed him in the wide arc between sweeper cover and mid-wicket for easy, risk-free runs.
He lost the company of both Iyer, who played some delectable shots, and Axar Patel (27) in rather quick succession but Kohli went past his 50 in 53 balls.
Glenn Maxwell dropped him on 51 off left-arm spinner Cooper Connolly, a perceived early signal of an inevitable Kohli hundred.
But it did not arrive as an ugly hit off Zampa ended in the hands of Ben Dwarshuis near long-on when India were 40 runs away from victory.
KL Rahul (42 not out) and Hardik Pandya (28) played some smart and aggressive cricket as India cantered home without much ado.
However, the Indian bowlers too deserve some credit as they kept the Aussies batting on a tight leash despite well-paced fifties from Smith and Carey.
Australian skipper Smith (73, 96b, 4×4, 1×6) won a good toss, but the batters could not exploit fine batting conditions, throwing their wickets away through silly shots.
Throughout his stay, Smith was the pillar of Australian innings, and was involved in three 50 stands — 52 with Travis Head for the second wicket, 56 for the third wicket with Marnus Labuschagne and 54 for the fifth wicket with Carey (61, 57b, 8×4, 1×6).
Australia would have been in a much better position had two of those alliances bloomed into something more substantial.
Few batters have a higher fortune quotient than Head and his cameo of 39 had several slices of fortune — a dropped catch by Mohammed Shami (3/48) off his own bowling in the first legal delivery of the match, a near run-out, and a couple of inside edges that missed the stumps by a whisker.
But Chakravarthy mitigated Hea”s threat when the left-hander skied him to a running-in Gill in the deep.
Labuschagne played back and across to a straighter one from the impressive Ravindra Jadeja (2/40) to get trapped in front.
However, Smith chugged along nicely with excellent control and his thumping straight six off Jadeja was a work of art in timing and power.
However, a rather mindless charge at a full toss from Shami ended his stint, as the ball crashed onto the stumps.
Glenn Maxwell came in a perfect situation for him at 198 for five with 13 overs to spare, but an inexplicable back-foot punch off Axar curtailed his stay prematurely.
Carey carried on with determination at one end, and was engaged in a useful 34-run alliance with Dwarshuis for the seventh wicket to see them past the 250-run mark.
But the target was way too feeble to give any real test to this Indian batting unit.