Virat Kohli's heroics and Hardik Pandya’s cameo help India win Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final against Australia

India and Australia clashed against each other in the 1st semi-final of the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 on March 4 in Dubai. The Men in Blue defeated the Kangaroos by four wickets to enter the Champions Trophy final for the third consecutive time and will face South Africa or New Zealand in the final clash.

Talking about the match, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Travis Head opened the innings with a new partner, Cooper Connolly, who replaced the injured Mathew Short but couldn’t make any great impact as he registered a duck. On the other hand, Head played in his usual manner, attacking all the bowlers.

However, Varun Chakravarthy’s introduction in the ninth over helped the Indian team to get rid of Head. Varun dismissed the left-handed batter on the score of 39 runs. After that, Australia’s most responsible batters, Marnus Labuschagne and skipper Steve Smith, steadied the ship and stitched a 56-run stand for the third wicket.

Apart from Smith’s 73-run knock, only Alex Carey could perform in front of the Indian bowlers. He scored 61 runs off 57 balls and was run out by a brilliant throw by Shreyas Iyer. Indian bowlers were brilliant throughout the innings as everyone took a wicket except Kuldeep Yadav.

Chasemaster Virat Kohli helps India to win against Australia

Chasing the target, India also lost one of their opener early as Shubhman Gill departed on just eight runs. After getting two lifelines from the Australian fielders, Rohit also went back to the pavilion scoring just 28 runs. However, the 91-run stand for the third wicket between Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer took the game away from the Australian team.

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Kohli missed his well-deserved century by just 16 runs, but he did his job pretty well. In the end, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya made sure that India win the match comfortably by hitting some big shots. Kohli was named Player of the match for his brilliant 84-run knock.