KATHMANDU, Sept 30: Australia qualified for the semifinal of the Champions Trophy with a nervous two-wicket win over Pakistan at the Centurion, South Africa on Wednesday knocking India out of the tournament. [break]
Australia sealed the semifinal spot with a run in the second-last ball of the innings and the victory with a bye on the last ball with two wickets remaining in a tense match. Pakistan bowled well to take the match to the final ball despite scoring moderate 205/6.
"I had chewed all my fingernails off," Australian captain Ricky Ponting said. "It was tough to score quickly out there, the bounce was inconsistent and it spun at the end so we were a little lucky to restrict them to that total."
Australia has finished top of the table and now faces England in the semi-final on Friday. They had defeated England 6-1 in the series that preceded the tournament.
Pakistan, who have already qualified for the semi-final, faces New Zealand in the other semi-final of the tournament, on Saturday, which has seen off pre-tournament favorites South Africa, Sri Lanka and India.
India, which defeated West Indies by 7 wickets, had nothing to gain other than pride from that final league match.
Chasing 205, Australia got off a good start racing to 140/2 in 31 overs with Ponting and Michael Hussey going well. But they lost quick wickets to go down 187/8 before Brett Lee (12) and M Hauritz (9) ensured the win.
Hussey topscored with 64 while Ponting (32), T Paine (29) and Shane Watson (24) contributed. For Pakistan, Mohd Asif and Saeed Ajmal took two wickets each.
Earlier, 40s from Kamran Akmal, Mohd Yousuf and Misbah-ul-Haq took Pakistan past 200 on the difficult pitch.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli hit 79 not out Wednesday to lead India to a seven-wicket win over West Indies, but his team still failed to advance to the Champions Trophy semifinals.
After Indian opening bowlers Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra each took three wickets to dismiss West Indies for 129 in 36 overs at the Wanderers Stadium, Kohli struck nine boundaries and two sixes in 104 balls to steer India to 130-3 in the 33rd over.
It began as a must-win game for India, which needed Pakistan to beat Australia to have a chance of going through. But Australia eked out a last-ball victory to end India´s chances of advancing.
Kohli was supported by Dinesh Karthik, who made 34 from 79 balls with four boundaries.
Darren Sammy made 23, David Bernard 22 and Devon Smith 21 after India had won the toss and sent West Indies in to bat.
Kumar claimed 3-22 in nine overs and Nehra took 3-31 from eight.
Kumar struck on the sixth ball of the innings to remove Andre Fletcher for a duck with the team yet to score. Nehra took two wickets in his fourth over, getting rid of Kieran Powell for 5 and Smith.
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