India setup a dream semifinal clash with Pakistan by beating defending champions Australia by five wickets in the World Cup here tonight. Chasing a competitive 261 to win, India were helped along by some sensible batting from Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh.

India survived a Ricky Ponting masterclass (104, 118 balls, 7x4, 1 x6) and some tense moments to beat four-time World Champions Australia by five wickets and 14 balls to spare to set up a potentially explosive clash with arch rivals Pakistan in Mohali on March 30. 

The hosts rose to the occasion in style, first with a superb bowling and fielding effort, then the great master Sachin Tendulkar set the stage alight with glorious strokeplay to put the side on cruise mode before some quintessential Indian harakiri.

Sachin Tendulkar had given the side a steady start, and Gautam Gambhir kept the team focussed on the target with a 64-ball 50. Sachin got 53 and Kohli 24, before Yuvraj (57) and Raina (34) saw the side through. 

When Australia batted, under-pressure Ricky Ponting produced a masterclass only the greatest champions can conjure up — a classic century that took his side to 260, and gave it a realistic chance of keeping on the track of a fourth successive World Cup. That, alas, was not to be.

Five overs earlier, Virat Kohli swatted a full toss straight down the throat of Michael Clarke at mid-wicket. 

Skipper MS Dhoni cracked a thundering boundary, but another attempt off Lee saw Dhoni cut the bowler straight to Michael Clarke at point. The Indians had slid to 187 for 5 in 37.3 overs and seemed to be spoiling their own party till Yuvraj and Raina came into their own. 

Of course, Tendulkar (53; 68b, 7x4) was on a different planet altogether as he caressed, punched, pulled, drove and also played the upper cut, the way only he can to raise hopes of the ton of tons.

With 74 runs still required of 75 balls, Yuvraj looked up at the murky night sky of Ahmedabad, wiped his brow of strain and marked his crease once again. His skipper Dhoni had just departed cheaply for 7 — caught at point immediately after almost running himself out — giving Yuvraj enough time to ponder at the giant screen in the stadium. And with the Aussies chirping in his ears before Suresh Raina made his way to the middle, the highlights of the match gone by flashed before his nervy eyes

While India relied on spin to restrict Australia to 260, despite captain Ricky Ponting's century, Australia's pace battery could not achieve the desired result in the face of concerted assaults, first by Sachin Tendulkar, and then by Yuvraj and Raina. Yuvraj also completed 8,000 runs in ODIs while Sachin surpassed the 18000-run land mark.

It was Yuvraj's 29th half century in ODIs, seventh of the World Cup, fourth against Australia and fourth in this edition of the World Cup.

India thus avenged their defeat at the hands of Australia in the final of the 2003 World Cup and now take on Pakistan in the semifinal at Mohali.

Though "God of Cricket" Sachin Tendulkar's date with 100 international centuries got postponed for another day, he did cross a couple of milestones before being out for 53, caught behind by wicket-keeper Brad Haddin, off Shaun Tait. His knock was embellished with seven boundaries. Normally Sehwag starts the day with a four, but this time Sehwag missed that honour, but Sachin did it, with two fours off Shaun Tait.

India started the chase on a shaky note as Virender Sehwag was lucky to survive a caught behind appeal in the very first over off Brett Lee, though as is his wont, he finally exited after cracking two pleasing boundaries.
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India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, however, lost the all-important toss in the do-or-die quarter-final but made his intention clear that spin would be his ace weapon when he opened the bowling with Southie off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting won the crucial toss and elected to bat first against India in the 2nd quarterfinal at Sardar Patel Motera stadium in Ahmedabad.
AUS: 260/6 (50.0 Ovs)
A fine performance by both sides so far. Australia started cautiously, got pegged back, had a recovery but again lost wickets in the middle. A bit of surge towards the end saw them reach 260 as they scored 75/2 in the last 10 overs, of which, 41/1 came in the last 5. But, the story of the afternoon has been one man - Ricky Thomas Ponting - Century in his last World Cup game against India in 2003 and a ton today as well. He struggled initially but then, he made it up beautifully by scoring a brilliant hundred. However, when he scored a hundred last time, his side amassed a massive score and this is way short from that one. It was a decent bowling performance, mixing good balls with bad ones.
Ponting hit seven fours and a six in his 118-ball 104 innings to score his 30th ODI hundred. 

R Ashwin took the prize-wicket of Ponting in the penultimate over of the match. Ashwin finished the innings with 2 wickets for 52 in 10 overs. 

David Hussey remained unbeaten for the champions on 38 off 26 balls. David hit three boundaries and a huge 85m six during his late charge against the Indian bowlers. 

Zaheer Khan dismissed Cameron White (12) and Mike Hussey (3) to halt the Australian innings in the middle overs. Zaheer scalped White after the batsman added 40-run with his skipper Ponting for the fifth wicket. 

Zaheer also clean bowled Hussey soon after Yuvraj Singh dismissed Michael Clarke (8) in the 34th over to check the Aussie innings. 

Australia lost Haddin (53) after he added valuable 70-run stand with his skipper. Haddin slammed six fours and a six in his 62-ball innings before Yuvraj struck in the 23rd over. 

Yuvraj was the pick of Indian bowlers with two wickets for 44 runs in his ten overs. 

Off-spinner R Ashwin provided India crucial breakthrough as he dismissed Australia's Shane Watson. 

Openers Shane Watson and Brad Haddin started off well as they gave Australia a steady start against India. The duo added 40 runs for the first wicket. 

Earlier, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting won the crucial toss and decided to bat first. 

In what is Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 100th ODI as India captain, there is one change to the side with Virender Sehwag coming in for Yusuf Pathan. 

Australia have brought David Hussey in place of spinner Steven Smith. 

Teams: 

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel

Australia: Ricky Ponting (c), Brad Haddin, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke, Cameron White, Mike Hussey, David Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Jason Krejza, Shaun Tait. 

Umpires: Marais Erasmus (RSA) and Ian Gould (ENG) 
TV umpire: Richard Kettleborough (ENG) 
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI) 

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