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Can inspired Indians tame the awesome Aussies?

— PHOTO: AFP

READY FOR A FIGHT: The Indian players will have to raise their game a few notches to conquer the indomitable Australians at Durban on Saturday.

Durban: It’s taken just a week and a half to reach the business end of the World Twenty20.

India and Australia deserve their semifinal spots. The Indians have shown indomitable spirit to win two do-or-die back-to-back-matches convincingly, and qualify for the semifinals.

After the loss to Zimbabwe, Australia eased past England, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but was done in by Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq’s relentless hitting in its match against Pakistan. But the Twenty20 Australian squad hasn’t been as intimidating as some of the past teams.

Lack of Twenty20 experience hampered the start of the campaign, but the team has progressed well. “We feel like we are getting better everyday. We had a kind of a long break. The less competitive games you play going into a big tournament you need some time to get back into the swing of things, the pressure of winning and losing. Even in the practice games you don’t get that kind of a pressure. It has been great that we have been able to find our way through to this phase of the tournament and we are getting better every time. We are playing the semifinals on Saturday in as good a shape as we can be,” said Aussie coach Tim Nielsen.

Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist are the best equipped bastmen in the tournament to deal with India’s opening bowlers. Even if Ponting doesn’t play, the Aussies will be tough to beat. They are deadly in knock-out matches.

“We don’t fear any team,” said Irfan Pathan, also adding that there might be a possibility of him opening the bowling with R.P. Singh, to exploit the swinging conditions against Australia’s left-handed openers. R.P. Singh has been brilliant in this tournament.

The Australian bowlers were destructive against Sri Lanka. Brett Lee was quick and Stuart Clark was at his best. But the conditions at Cape Town, in a morning match, were different from what they will get here.

Having played three matches already at Durban, the Indians will be better prepared.

The biggest concern for India will be Yuvraj Singh and captain M.S. Dhoni’s fitness. India coach Lalchand Rajput said that Yuvraj’s and Dhoni’s fitness would be assessed on Saturday morning. “Yuvraj is much better than Thursday. So hopefully he’ll be available Saturday. But John Gloster will assess him tomorrow morning,” he said.

“Gloster will assess Dhoni again tomorrow, but it seems okay at the moment but the final call will be taken tomorrow,” said Rajput. Should the two be fit for the clash, India might fancy its chances of making it to the final.

The teams (from):

India: M.S. Dhoni (captain), Ajit Agarkar, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Joginder Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, R.P. Singh, Yuvraj Singh, S. Sreesanth and Robin Uthappa.

Australia: Adam Gilchrist (captain), Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge, Andrew Symonds, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark,, Brad Haddin, Ben Hilfenhaus and Brad Hogg.

Umpires: Asad Rauf and Mark Benson.

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