The Champions Trophy group stages had more twists and turns than anyone could have imagined. From the shock exit of the hosts who also happened to be the favourites, to the incredible run of two so-called beleaguered teams, to weather gods creating havoc and a last ball thriller, it's been a great, albeit unpredictable, nine days for cricket fans. And now that the dust has settled and the last gasp mathematics is out of contention, we are down to the Final Four.
The first semi-final on the 2nd of October is between two teams who can't seem to see enough of each other. England and Australia have been at each other's throats all summer with the English reclaiming the Ashes and then the Aussies comprehensively winning the ODI series that followed, all in the space of two months. Barely ten days after the last ODI of that series was played out in Durham, England, the action now shifts to the SuperSport Park in Centurion for the 8th England-Australia ODI of the summer and, arguably, the most important one
For England, things have dramatically changed over the course of the last ten days. Before the seventh and final match of the Natwest Series, they had suffered six losses in a row to their arch rivals and were grappling with the reality of a humiliating 7-0 series whitewash. In the face of all that doom and gloom, however, they bounced back to win the final match and haven't looked back since. Andrew Strauss' side defied all the odds and expectations by defeating Sri Lanka and then the favourites South Africa to secure their Champions Trophy semi-final berth. They would have topped the group if it weren't for a resurgent New Zealand who spoilt their party in the last game on a terrible pitch at the Wanderers.
The team certainly have a lot more confidence than they did coming into the competition and will believe that they can continue their incredible run. However, nothing short of their performance against the South Africans will do if they want to defeat the defending champions and make it to the final. The English team gave a masterclass in batting in that match and the bowlers remained calm under pressure from a resilient Graeme Smith to edge out the favourites. The middle order were sublime against the Proteas with Owais Shah playing a scintillating innings of 98 and Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan chipping in with quickfire half centuries. England had a bad day with the bat against New Zealand where they scored a meagre 146 and they'll be hoping that it was just an off day because they'll need all the runs they can get against a solid Aussie batting order. The good news is that wicketkeeper batsman Matt Prior should be fit to play which will mean an out of form Ravi Bopara will probably sit this one out
Strauss will be looking to his lead bowler James Anderson to pull off another top notch performance. Anderson has definitely been the pick of the England bowlers so far having taken 7 wickets in 3 matches with an economy rate of 3.89. He'll need ample support from the other pace bowlers although, in what could be a major blow for the English, Stuart Broad might have to watch this one from the sidelines because of a gluteal injury. In that case, Graham Onions or Tim Bresnan will get a place in the side along with Ryan Sidebottom. Graeme Swann will be looking for a repeat performance of his excellent spell against the Aussies in the last match they played where he picked up 5 wickets and effectively won the match for England. Swann will be encouraged by the fact that Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi troubled the Aussie batsmen greatly at SuperSport Park on Wednesday.
Despite England's heroics in this tournament, the defending champions definitely go into this one as favourites. Ricky Ponting and his side were unbeaten in the group stages and even though their match against India was rained out eventually, whatever we saw of them that day was pretty impressive. The batsmen have looked formidable apart from a little wobble in the match against Pakistan. Captain Ricky Ponting is in an incredible patch of form and will definitely be the prized wicket for England's bowlers on Friday. Tim Paine at the top has looked good as has Michael Hussey who has played two fluent knocks in the last couple of games. While Mitchell Johnson proved that the Aussie tail is capable of some extravagant batting in their first match, Brett Lee showed that they can handle hostile, death bowling when he carried them through on the last ball against Pakistan.
If their bowlers can continue the tight, disciplined attack we've seen from them so far in this tournament they should have some luck against the English batsmen. One of the reasons, Shah and Co. reached the 300 mark against the Proteas was because of some pretty average bowling and as we saw against the Kiwis, the English batsmen are not comfortable against good length swinging deliveries. Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson should be able to inflict some damage on the English top order early on in the piece if they can get their line and length righ
It's a little difficult to predict how the pitch at SuperSport Park will behave. We have seen a very flat track there with both sides reaching 300 and we have also seen a wicket where the ball is very hard to get away like in the Australia-Pakistan match. Which one we'll see on Friday is anyone's guess but Australia have the advantage of having played their last two matches at the same ground.
So while the Aussies, undoubtedly have the edge, England have been the giant killers in this tournament and they have proved that they can beat anyone on their day. They have thrived against the big boys in the competition and Andrew Strauss will be desperate for their fairytale to continue. It has, after all, been 17 long years since England made it to the final of an ICC event.
Squads
England (from): Andrew Strauss (capt), Joe Denly, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (wk), Ravi Bopara, Luke Wright, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson, Tim Bresnan, Graham Onions, Adil Rashid.
Australia (from): Shane Watson, Tim Paine (wk), Ricky Ponting (capt), Mike Hussey, Callum Ferguson, Cameron White, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Adam Voges, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger, David Hussey (In for Clarke)
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