Australia rue middle over woes, fickle T20, Kohli genius

Australia captain Steve Smith, while tipping his hat to a brilliant innings from India's Virat Kohli, was left ruing his team's middle overs malaise after their sixth attempt to win the World Twenty20 came up short in Mohali.

Kohli's magnificent 82 not out from 51 balls helped India overhaul Australia's 160 with five balls to spare on Sunday, sending the hosts into the semi-finals as Group 2 runners-up and  Smith's men home.

Smith was quick to pay tribute to Kohli's "seriously unbelievable" knock but said Australia had contributed to their failure to sustain a challenge for the one major international trophy they have never won.

Dismissing criticism of Australia's preparations and the make-up of the squad, Smith said it had been in the execution of their skills that the players had fallen short.

"You have to try and find your best 15, particularly in these conditions, and I think we had the right 15, we just let ourselves down in key moments," he told reporters in his post-match news conference.

"Obviously we haven't done as well as we'd have liked in this format but hopefully we'll continue to improve."

The "conditions", slow pitches which favour spin bowling, were a recurring theme throughout Smith's postmortem of the campaign but it was the batting in the middle overs that he pinpointed.

"We probably let ourselves down in the middle overs again ... losing a few wickets in clumps, not being able to get that partnerships together to get the score above par to 170-odd, so that was a bit disappointing," Smith added.

"But I think the players will learn a lot from this tournament, playing in these conditions again, it's very valuable and hopefully we can continue to learn and get better."

Smith paid tribute to all-rounder Shane Watson, who took 2-23 and a stunning diving catch to dismiss Yuvraj Singh in his last match as an international cricketer before retirement.

"Obviously there's no real fairytales in sport very often," Smith said of his 34-year-old team mate.

"Shane gave his all as he did every game for Australia, I thought he bowled beautifully tonight and looked like he was 25 again taking that catch."

Smith was in mood to complain about his own dismissal despite television pictures indicating he had been unfortunate to be given out for two.

He said the foundations for Australia's demise had been laid in their opener against New Zealand.

"I think we let ourselves down against New Zealand, we probably should have won that game," Smith said.

"To lose that game by eight (runs) was quite shattering. And we were always chasing our tail from there.

"We had to win every game we played and in Twenty20 cricket that's quite hard. It's quite a fickle game and all it takes is one player going off, like tonight, to take the game away."

England reach semis after holding nerve in last over

England held their nerve to beat Sri Lanka by 10 runs in a thrilling World Twenty20 Group One match on Saturday, reaching the semi-finals and knocking the defending champions out of the tournament.

Jos Buttler struck a blistering unbeaten 66 to power England to a commanding 171 for four after they had made a slow start.

The 2010 winners then returned to blow away Sri Lanka's top order before Angelo Mathews fought off a hamstring injury to drag his team back into the match with a brilliant 73 not out.

Sri Lanka's defeat also dashed South Africa's hopes of qualifying for the last four.

"I think we adapted a lot better today than we did against Afghanistan," said England captain Eoin Morgan, referring to his team's mediocre batting display in their previous match.

"We showed we're capable of playing both smart cricket and aggressive cricket."

Put in to bat, England lost Alex Hales in the second over but Jason Roy (42) and Joe Root (25) added 61 runs in 8.3 overs to steady the innings.

Leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay dismissed both batsmen but Buttler capitalised on the foundation, hitting eight fours and two sixes in a 37-ball blitz.


Morgan made 22 before being run out and Ben Stokes smashed the last ball, the only delivery he faced, from Thisara Perera for six.

Sri Lanka made a dismal start to their reply as openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Chandimal were dismissed inside the first eight deliveries.

Milinda Siriwardena and Lahiru Thirimanne also went as Mathews' side slumped to 15 for four.

Skipper Mathews and Chamara Kapugedera (30) revived their hopes, mixing caution with aggression and smashing three sixes off an Adil Rashid over that produced 21 runs.

Perera also scored 20 quick runs down the order but Mathews looked tired by the end and could only score four of the 15 runs required from the last over by Stokes.

"We had nothing to lose after we were 15 for four," said Mathews. "Myself and Kapugedera decided we'd target a few bowlers.

"It worked but unfortunately I didn't have a (frontline) batter with me in the last couple of overs. It was a really good wicket...if we had another batter we could have got over the line."

Buttler was named man-of-the-match for his typically belligerent knock.

West Indies reach semi-finals after last-over win

West Indies beat South Africa by three wickets in a low-scoring thriller in their World Twenty20 Super 10 match on Friday to join New Zealand in the semi-finals.

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India vs NZ

The day Test cricket began in 1877

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