Heavyweights India, Australia face each other on a blockbuster Sunday
Two teams who have been predicted as the semi-finalists by most of the people will clash on Sunday (June 9) at the Kennington Oval in London as India and Australia look to add to their wins at the ICC World Cup 2019.
Earlier this year, Australia lost to India in the ODI series. Both the teams are coming off with convincing wins although India has just played once so far, while Australia has been a part of a couple of matches. The Indian’s began their campaign on a positive note with an impressive performance versus the Proteas.
Rohit Sharma scored a spectacular hundred, added that earlier the bowlers made sure that they restricted South Africa to a sub-par 227. Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar exploited the conditions beautifully and made the openers look clueless before Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal took advantage of the foundation laid by the Pacers. Kohli hopes that the bowlers continue their form and one of the top three will play big innings. The Oval has hosted 2 day games and 3 of the 4 innings have surpassed the 300 run mark.
On the other hand, the defending champions will behalf with the nature of their wins. While they produced a dominating performance against Afghanistan. The Carribean bowlers reduced them to 38-4 before Steve Smith, Alex Carey and Nathan Coulter-Nile not only stabilised the innings but also made sure that they reached a respectable total as the Aussies ended with 288.
The bowlers were decent and were aided by a few umpiring decisions going their way as they edged West Indies by 15 runs. The 5-time champions are hoping that Smith and Warner will play big innings while Mitchell Starc, who picked a 5 wicket haul on Thursday (June 6) will continue to bowl the same way.
Toss prediction
The Aussies have two games, one while batting first and the other while chasing, if they win the toss on Sunday they will opt to chase. The Indians chased vs South Africa and they will be looking to chase at the Oval.
India
Considering the nature of the victory vs South Africa, India will most probably go unchanged.
Predicted XI:
Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah
Australia
Australia have won both their games in contrasting fashion and their team’s character was put to test vs the West Indies but they successfully passed the test. They will be giving one more opportunity to Khawaja who has not made any impact so far.
Predicted XI:
David Warner, Aaron Finch (c), Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa
Stats that matter
India has been defeated 4 times in the 5 previous meetings between the 2 sides in World Cups. The last time India and Australia played at this venue was at the 1999 World Cup when the Aussies won by 77 runs.
