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India is playing Australia in the first semifinal of the Champions Trophy 2025, and Australia skipper Steve Smith has chosen to bat first after winning the toss. India took the early wickets, and they were able to get the dangerous Travis Head on 39 runs off 33 balls. Like always, Travis was looking good, he gave a quick start to Australia with his 5 fours and 2 sixes.
However, things turned around when Indian captain Rohit Sharma brought Varun Chakravarty in the 9th over who got Travis Head in his first spell. Travis miss-hit on the second ball of the first spell of Varun Chakravarty and Shubman Gill took a running catch at long-on. Shubman took an amazing catch but the umpire Richard Illingworth quickly warned him about completing the catch. Shubman while taking the running catch released the bowl from his hands which was not considered as the completed catch.
Umpire warns Shubman under MCC law
Although, the umpires declared it a clean catch but they warned Shubman about it under the MCC laws. According to the MCC law 33.3 making a catch, the timing of the catch will be considered from the first contact of the fielder to the ball to till the fielder has complete control over the ball and his own movements. Shubman released the ball too soon before he completed the running. That’s why umpire Richard Illingworth had to warn the Indian opening batsman.
Talking about the game the team Australia is giving a tough fight to India who were dominating the Dubai derby in the group stages. India defeated New Zealand, Bangladesh, and Pakistan in the group-stage matches and all were comfortable wins. India ended the group stage (Group A) at the top of the table and they got a semifinal fixture with Australia who ended up at the second position in Group B.
Team India’s combination of 4 spinners
Rohit Sharma’s led Indian team is repeating the combination of 4 spinners (Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarty, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav) and 2 pacers (Hardik Pandya and Mohammad Shami) in the semifinal against Australia after a comfortable win against New Zealand. Australia is lacking spinners as they have two spinners Adam Zampa, Tanvir Sangha and Glen Maxwell as a part-time spin bowler.
Also Read: Champions Trophy Semi-Final: Rohit Sharma Faces Toss Dilemma On Bone-Dry Dubai Pitch
