Australia 215 for 7 (Head 62, Shamsi 2-42, Coetzee 2-47) beat South Africa 212 (Miller 101, Klaasen 47, Starc 3-34, Hazlewood 2-12) by three wickets

Yawn. Australia are in one other World Cup remaining.

Except, this wasn't Steve Waugh's mentality monsters or Ricky Ponting's Invincibles. These males had been fallible. They virtually did not make it. South Africa refused to allow them to.

The males they dismissed had been Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and very crucially, Glenn Maxwell for a duck.

Australia had been 137 for five.

How did this sport come alive?

Things did not get a lot better within the chase both. South Africa wanted 52 balls to get their first boundary. Australia wanted two. Marco Jansen leaked 12 runs off one supply. Reeza Hendricks dropped Head on 40 and watched him hit a hat-trick of fours - a type of was a drop too - to get to his half-century. More than half the rating they needed to defend had vanished within the fifteenth over.

The ghosts of knockouts previous had all arrived at Eden Gardens with pop corn and all the pieces.

Shasmi, although, advised them to bleep all the best way off. He was the one who made Labuschagne look very, very foolish within the sixteenth over, an lbw shout turned down regardless that his leg was actually earlier than the wicket. He was the one who knocked Maxwell's leg stump again, an extended hop that all of the sudden morphed into maybe the one most essential supply of this sport, sneaking under the bat that had final week conjured a double-hundred to get well a misplaced trigger and into the leg stump.

Shamsi rounded the entire sq. in celebration. Temba Bavuma stored higher management of his toes however his eyes had been alight.

The ghosts of knockouts previous had begun to flee when Josh Inglis walked in.

Absolute ecstasy for Australia, agony for South Africa•Getty Images

In situations that denied any sense of security to a batter, this man taking part in solely his seventeenth ODI performed the best little cameo of your entire World Cup. Inglis was in command of 89% of the balls he confronted - a full 15 proportion factors larger than the typical. That he would play such a decisive hand turned clear with the very first boundary that he struck, concentrating on Shamsi who was on the peak of his powers, hitting him in opposition to the flip however he did so utilizing a reasonably straighter bat and a teeny tiny backlift.

Those two selections together made all of the distinction on the earth. Australia insisted on taking part in again to even probably the most invitingly full deliveries from each Shamsi and Maharaj. But the place it led to the downfall of two of their very best- David Warner and Maxwell - Inglis thrived as a result of he offered the complete face at each potential alternative and it did not take him all that a lot time to deliver it down on high of the ball.

Eden Gardens was providing fast flip. Winding up as each Warner and Maxwell did - and to a sure extent Head and Labuschagne as effectively, regardless that they had been taking part in on the entrance foot - was flirting with an excessive amount of hazard. The time they misplaced lifting the bat that prime left them unable to guard their pads or their wickets.

Australia had been 174 for five with Inglis at one finish and Steven Smith on the different.

The ghosts of knockouts previous had been sharing fist bumps now.

Gerald Coetzee, although, advised them to bleep all the best way off. He wasn't positive he was going to be right here. In the center of claiming so to his fiancé the day earlier than South Africa had been presupposed to announce their World Cup squad, he acquired a name from the coach saying he was in. He'd performed 4 ODIs earlier than this match, and but the worth he brings, hitting the deck within the center overs at 150kph, has confirmed to be invaluable. He is South Africa's highest wicket-taker (20) and the 2 he took tonight had been mighty spectacular.

In the center of a seven-over spell the place he was requested to focus on the batter's nostril, which could be very exhausting work, particularly once you even have to take care of that tempo, he outsmarted Smith - bowling the broad size ball when he was anticipating a bouncer and having him caught - and bulldozed by means of Inglis - a yorker that went onto the stumps regardless that the man really managed to hit it - and uncovered Australia's tail.

South Africa nonetheless had 19 runs to play with. They created extra probabilities. Mitchell Starc nicked one however there was no slip in. Pat Cummins scooped one in direction of brief midwicket however the ball fell wanting a diving Miller. De Kock, who now that the match is over is now not an lively worldwide cricketer, dropped a severely powerful catch behind the wicket with the goal 9 runs away.

The ghosts received. And Australia with them. They undergo to their eighth males's ODI World Cup remaining - there have solely been 12 of these to this point - to face India in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

David Miller introduced up a 115-ball century•ICC/Getty Images

For about an hour and 12 minutes proper initially of this semi-final, below ash gray skies, they had been taking part in the form of cricket that no one might match. Starc and Josh Hazlewood bowled 13 overs collectively to start out the sport and allowed solely 11 scoring pictures. Overcast situations supplied them swing by means of the air and seam off the pitch. Their team-mates - Warner particularly - supplied much more, making a handful of saves within the 30-yard circle that in any other case might simply have gone for 4.

"You can see by the way they're moving," Ponting stated on commentary. "It's almost like a yellow wave."

Australia wished the batters to hit excessive. De Kock resisted for 13 deliveries however then he misplaced belief in himself and took the bait. The ball went miles within the air. Cummins ran a good distance again from mid-on. He by no means misplaced monitor of it and when he lastly had it in his palms he simply lay there on the turf arms unfold broad in triumph.

This was high-class planning and execution. Hazlewood, particularly. The fates had conspired at hand him a model new ball in dank situations that required the floodlights to come back on. A one-day sport had became a day-night Test and he is completely metallic in that format. Seeing that he was getting simply sufficient seam motion and that it was going each methods, he knew all he needed to do from there was be correct. Forty of Hazlewood's 48 deliveries had been on a size or simply again of it. Thirty-eight of these 40 deliveries had been on the stumps or within the channel. Essentially, he compelled South Africa to play virtually each ball however he gave them nothing to drive, pull or lower. His figures learn 8-3-12-2.

Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins added 22 runs off 46 balls to take Australia house•ICC/Getty Images

Starc on the different finish did probably the most Starc factor of all, dismissing the opposition's talismanic captain within the first over of a World Cup knockout match. He, additionally, for good measure, took out South Africa's T20I captain, Aiden Markram spooning a catch to backward level and Warner not simply taking it however actually bouncing round with pleasure. Australia have an extended and storied historical past of reducing off the top however this was simply so grasping.

It was solely the twelfth over and already the finishers had been on the crease. Miller started constructing South Africa's complete with a candy six over broad long-on off Adam Zampa. The solely frontline spinner that Australia had dropped at the World Cup was going for eight an over in bowling-friendly situations. He gave away half of the sixes that had been hit in the entire innings and Miller was the person who stored sending him over the ropes. The stability was tilting.

Cummins threw the ball to Head. He acquired one to spin large. The subsequent not a lot. Facing spin when that occurs is a nightmare and Heinrich Klaasen epitomised it. He performed for flip. It did not do as a lot as he feared. As a outcome, he acquired beat on the surface edge and misplaced his center stump. The subsequent man in was lbw to a ball that deviated 5.4 levels. Marco Jansen did not stand an opportunity. Not with this a lot pure variation.

Miller persevered although. He turned the primary batter at No. 6 or decrease to hit a century in a World Cup knockout match. And when he got here again on the finish of the innings, he stated that they had sufficient on the board. He stated batting was powerful on the market; that he could not afford to look wherever past the subsequent ball that he needed to face. It was an unbelievable knock. It was an unbelievable sport.

Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo