After a poor start, Australia have hit their straps at the Twenty20 World Cup. Coach Tim Nielsen, however, warned that the World champions will have to be on high alert during Saturday's semifinal against India.

"We are getting to the stage where, with four teams left, we have to be at our best," Nielsen said on Friday afternoon. "Otherwise, you can be caught out pretty quickly. We have to make sure that tomorrow, we are switched on from ball one. At the start of the tournament, we were a bit unsure about how the format would work. The defeat against Zimbabwe was as good a tonic as we could have got. It is made us focus, and realise that if we did not get it right, we would be under real pressure. Most importantly, after that loss, we had time to practice and train, and to get the confidence back among the boys. We now feel that we can meet the challenges a lot better."

Nielsen said India's run to the semis in the absence of their batting superstars didn't surprise him. "They have got a lot of young players, who are very enthusiastic and relishing the challenge of playing for the country," he observed. "We have seen RP Singh and Dinesh Kaarthick at the Academy back in Australia, a few of our guys have played with Rohit Sharma. We know that they are all fine players. But we will back our players to be on song and to put it past the opposition."

India have played three matches at Kingsmead, while Australia landed here from Cape Town only on Friday morning. "Obviously, it is an advantage for India," Nielsen conceded. "We are lucky that we have experienced players who have toured South Africa before, but in that time span, they didn't play Twenty20 cricket. It is all about adapting quickly.”