Rohit Sharma bludgeoned 92 to leave the Aussies relying on the Bangladesh-Afghanistan result going their way

Australia have one foot out of the World Cup after a Rohit Sharma hurricane blew them away, leaving Mitch Marsh’s men relying on Bangladesh beating Afghanistan by not too great a margin to qualify for the semi-finals.

With a vocal pro-India crowd and a howling easterly gale blowing through Daren Sammy Stadium, Rohit (92 off 41 balls) took down Australia’s vaunted attack to fire his side to 5-205 – the second highest total of the tournament.

Travis Head (76 from 43) returned fire as he threatened a repeat of last year’s Ahmedabad heroics, but Axar Patel took arguably the catch of the T20 World Cup to highlight a clinical Indian bowling performance.

The 24-run defeat has left Australia with one win from three Super Eight games. They now need Bangladesh to defeat Afghanistan later tonight (from 10.30am AEST) in St Vincent where Rashid Khan’s men accounted for the Aussies only 48 hours earlier.

But if Bangladesh win by a large margin (around 60 runs if they bat first) that would see them qualify over Australia. An Afghanistan win will certainly knock Australia out and see them progress to the final four to face South Africa in Trinidad.

“I’ve seen Rohit do it a few times now, he’s a world-class player. If you’re off your game that can happen,” said Josh Hazlewood, the best of the Australian bowlers in returning 1-14 from four overs.

“He just targeted that boundary with the wind there for a while and then we reacted and he hit some to the other side. He’s a class act, you expect him to do that at times throughout a tournament.”

Kuldeep Yadav (2-24) was immense in dismissing Mitch Marsh (37 off 28) and Glenn Maxwell (20 off 12) while Jasprit Bumrah (1-29), Arshdeep Singh (3-37) and Axar each had important moments with the ball.

“It was a pretty good wicket – it was probably a 190 par score (pitch),” said Hazlewood. “They got the other side of that. I thought the chase was on target for a time there.

“Kuldeep and Jasprit, their overs proved the difference again as they usually are. It fell apart at the end but the chase was on target there.”

India remain unbeaten through seven games in this tournament and will take a head of steam into their semi in Guyana against England.

Having watched Rohit obliterate the new ball, Head and Marsh managed an even better Powerplay (1-65 to 1-60) despite the early loss of David Warner to an Arshdeep out-swinger.

Head slammed four sixes in a typically belligerent hand, using his wrists cleverly to manoeuvre the ball when he was not swinging freely, as he and Marsh gave the Aussies a solid platform to launch from in their 81-run stand.

It took an extraordinary feat of athleticism from Axar to stop Marsh, with the Indian allrounder leaping full length to catch a bullet sweep in his non-dominant right hand. It was a tough pill for Marsh to swallow given his earlier costly dropped chance off Hardik Pandya.

Maxwell breathed life into the chase by hitting Ravindra Jadeja for a four and a six off his first two balls but his exit for 20 (off 12) was the beginning of a final slump of 5-53.

For the fifth straight match Marsh won the toss and bowled, which suited Rohit just fine as only two of India’s first 52 runs didn’t come from the flashing blade of their skipper.

Mitchell Starc, recalled after missing the Afghanistan match that only finished 34 hours prior, came in for the heaviest punishment (the 29 he coughed up off his second over was the most he has ever conceded off an over) but he was not alone as Rohit exploited the conditions expertly.

The right-hander hit with the breeze but also cleared the other short square boundary with a pair of supreme cover-driven sixes off Starc, while Pat Cummins (0-48) and Adam Zampa (0-41) also had unusually expensive outings.

Australia pegged back their opponents after Starc extracted revenge over Rohit (bowling him eight runs shy of a sixth T20I century) before having Suryakumar Yadav caught behind, both dismissals coming from slower balls.

But India’s momentum could have slowed further had Marsh held onto the looping catch off Pandya (on five at the time), adding to their recent woes in the field after they had put down 11 catches in their preceding three games.

2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

Australia’s squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Australia’s Group B fixtures

June 6: Beat Oman by 39 runs

June 9: Beat England by 36 runs

June 12: Beat Namibia by nine wickets

June 16: Beat Scotland by five wickets

Australia’s Super Eight fixtures

21 June: Beat Bangladesh by 28 runs (DLS)

23 June: Lost to Afghanistan by 21 runs

25 June: Lost to India by 24 runs

Semi-finals to follow if Australia qualify

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