India and Australia will contest the first semi final of the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai on Tuesday and India come into the game as the outright favourites to win the tournament.

 

 

 

We are down to 4 teams with South Africa and New Zealand the other semi finalists and they will meet in Lahore on Wednesday.

 

India

 

India reeled off 3 comfortable wins in Group A and arrive in the semi's with a 100% record. All their matches have been staged in Dubai, first up they beat Bangladesh by 6 wickets and they followed up with another 6 wickets win over Pakistan.

 

On Sunday they got the better of New Zealand by 44 runs. They were invited to bat first and recovered from 30/3 to post 249/9 in their 50 overs. The middle order were largely responsible with Iyer top scoring with 79 and Axar (42) and Pandya (45) were the next highest scorers. Varun Chakravarthy then stole the show with the ball, returning figures of 5/42 in his 10 overs as New Zealand's run chase closed on 205 all out in 45.3 overs.

 

This was how India lined up last time out.

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy

 

 

Australia

 

Australia finished as runners up to South Africa in Pool B where 2 of their 3 matches were affected by rain.

 

In their opening game they beat England by 5 wickets in Lahore. Australia won the toss and opted to bowl and England piled on 351/8 in their 50 overs and Ben Dwarshuis returned figures of 3/66. Australia's run chase started badly, 2/27 early in the fifth over. The middle order then got to grips with the England attack, Josh Inglis was unbeaten on 120, Labuschagne made 47 and Alex Carey 69 and a late cameo from Maxwell saw them get up in 47.3 overs.

 

Australia;s second group match, against South Africa was washed out without a toss taking place. In their final pool match against Afghanistan in Lahore they were 109/1 (Travis Head 59 not out) in 12.5 overs, on target to chase down 274 for victory when the rain arrived and no result was possible.

 

This was how Australia lined up in their most recent match

 

Matthew Short, Travis Head, Steven Smith (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson

 

Head to Head

 

Overall the teams have met 151 times in this format and India have won 57 to Australia's 84 with 10 no results.

 

The most recent meeting came in the 2023 World Cup Final in Ahmedabad and Australia (241/4) beat India (240) by 6 wickets. Travis Head (137) was Player of the Match.

 

 

The Betting

 

At the time of writing India are 11/20 to win this match and Australia can be backed at around 15/10

 

Prices subject to change

 

The Verdict

 

With India having played and won all 3 matches at this venue and Australia having being affected by adverse weather elsewhere it's advantage India.

 

I'll go with Virat Kohli to beat his Player Performance quote given his knack of taking catches alongside the potential to score big. In the same market the all round talents of Glenn Maxwell gets him the vote for Australia

 

Bet: Player Performance Virat Kohli over 36.5 at 17/20 with Betway

Player Performance Glenn Maxwell over 38.5 at 17/20 with Betway