<p>Dubai: Indian bowlers were persistent but well-paced fifties from Steve Smith and Alex Carey carried a largely profligate Australia to a slightly sub-par 264 all out in the Champions Trophy semifinal here on Tuesday.</p><p>Australian skipper Smith (73, 96b, 4x4, 1x6) won a good toss, but the batters could not exploit a much smoother pitch at the DICS, throwing their wickets away through silly shots.</p><p>Throughout his stay, Smith was the pillar of Australian innings, and was involved in three 50 stands — 52 with Travis Head for the second wicket, 56 for the third wicket Marnus Labuschagne and 54 for the fifth wicket with Carey (61, 57b, 8x4, 1x6).</p>.Champions Trophy 2025 | Australia win toss, opt to bat against India in semi-final.<p>Australia would have been in a much better position had two of those alliances bloomed into something more substantial. Each of them fell against the run of the play and it started with Head.</p><p>Few batters have a higher fortune quotient than Head and his cameo of 39 had several slices of fortune — a dropped catch by Shami off his own bowling in the first legal delivery of the match, a near run-out, and a couple of inside edges that missed the stumps by a whisker.</p><p>However, amidst all that, Head played some delightful shots such as a flicked six off Hardik Pandya and three fours in succession of Shami.</p><p>It helped the Aussies to recover from the early loss of Cooper Connolly, who opened with Head after coming in as an injury replacement for ruled out Matthew Short.</p><p>But Chakravarthy mitigated the Head threat when the left-hander skied him to a running-in Shubman Gill in the deep.</p><p>Labuschagne played back and across to a straighter one from the impressive Ravindra Jadeja (2/40) to get trapped in front.</p><p>Josh Inglis looked comfortable but a feeble uppish push off Jadeja ended in the hands of Virat Kohli at short covers.</p><p>However, Smith chugged along nicely with excellent control over batting and his thumping straight six off Jadeja was a piece of art in timing and power.</p><p>However, a rather mindless charge at a full toss from Shami ended his stint, as the ball crashed onto the stumps.</p><p>Glenn Maxwell came to the crease in a perfect situation for him at 198 for five with 13 overs to spare.</p><p>A quick and judicious knock would have taken the Aussies to an impregnable position, but an inexplicable effort for a back-foot punch off Axar Patel saw him losing his stumps.</p><p>Carey carried on with determination at one end, and was engaged in a useful 34-run alliance with Ben Dwarshuis for the seventh wicket to see them past the 250-run mark.</p><p>However, Carey was run out while attempting for a non-existent second run, getting caught off the crease by a brilliant direct hit by Shreyas Iyer.</p><p>The task of scaling down a 250-plus total might not be a simple one in the semifinals, but India will not be unhappy as at one time they were staring at a 300-plus chase.</p>
<p>Dubai: Indian bowlers were persistent but well-paced fifties from Steve Smith and Alex Carey carried a largely profligate Australia to a slightly sub-par 264 all out in the Champions Trophy semifinal here on Tuesday.</p><p>Australian skipper Smith (73, 96b, 4x4, 1x6) won a good toss, but the batters could not exploit a much smoother pitch at the DICS, throwing their wickets away through silly shots.</p><p>Throughout his stay, Smith was the pillar of Australian innings, and was involved in three 50 stands — 52 with Travis Head for the second wicket, 56 for the third wicket Marnus Labuschagne and 54 for the fifth wicket with Carey (61, 57b, 8x4, 1x6).</p>.Champions Trophy 2025 | Australia win toss, opt to bat against India in semi-final.<p>Australia would have been in a much better position had two of those alliances bloomed into something more substantial. Each of them fell against the run of the play and it started with Head.</p><p>Few batters have a higher fortune quotient than Head and his cameo of 39 had several slices of fortune — a dropped catch by Shami off his own bowling in the first legal delivery of the match, a near run-out, and a couple of inside edges that missed the stumps by a whisker.</p><p>However, amidst all that, Head played some delightful shots such as a flicked six off Hardik Pandya and three fours in succession of Shami.</p><p>It helped the Aussies to recover from the early loss of Cooper Connolly, who opened with Head after coming in as an injury replacement for ruled out Matthew Short.</p><p>But Chakravarthy mitigated the Head threat when the left-hander skied him to a running-in Shubman Gill in the deep.</p><p>Labuschagne played back and across to a straighter one from the impressive Ravindra Jadeja (2/40) to get trapped in front.</p><p>Josh Inglis looked comfortable but a feeble uppish push off Jadeja ended in the hands of Virat Kohli at short covers.</p><p>However, Smith chugged along nicely with excellent control over batting and his thumping straight six off Jadeja was a piece of art in timing and power.</p><p>However, a rather mindless charge at a full toss from Shami ended his stint, as the ball crashed onto the stumps.</p><p>Glenn Maxwell came to the crease in a perfect situation for him at 198 for five with 13 overs to spare.</p><p>A quick and judicious knock would have taken the Aussies to an impregnable position, but an inexplicable effort for a back-foot punch off Axar Patel saw him losing his stumps.</p><p>Carey carried on with determination at one end, and was engaged in a useful 34-run alliance with Ben Dwarshuis for the seventh wicket to see them past the 250-run mark.</p><p>However, Carey was run out while attempting for a non-existent second run, getting caught off the crease by a brilliant direct hit by Shreyas Iyer.</p><p>The task of scaling down a 250-plus total might not be a simple one in the semifinals, but India will not be unhappy as at one time they were staring at a 300-plus chase.</p>