India will play New Zealand at the first semi final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 at Manchester on July 9. The Virat Kohli-led side won their last group stage match against Sri Lanka on July 6 with the help of centuries by both their openers – Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.

In their last group stage match, Australia went down to South Africa thereby finishing the group stage behind India by 1 point. Second placed Australia will now take on third placed England in the second semi final match on July 11.

On Saturday, at the Headingley Cricket Ground, Rohit Sharma hit a crisp 103 to help India thrash Sri Lanka by seven wickets in their final group game of the World Cup to finish with 15 points from 9 games.

Sharma registered his fifth hundred of the ongoing World Cup – the most by any batsman in a single edition – bettering the record set by former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara in the 2015 World Cup.

Rohit now has six hundreds in the showpiece event and is sitting atop the list of most hundreds in World Cups with Sachin Tendulkar. The master blaster also has six World Cup hundreds.

Opting to bat first, Sri Lanka got off to a terrible start as Jasprit Bumrah sent back Dimuth Karunaratne for just 10 in the fourth over, caught by Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They set a 265-run target for India.

With 15 points from 9 games, India topped the group stage of the tournament. They went down to England in the group stages while their match against New Zealand was washed out due to rain.

Proteas end World Cup campaign with win over Aussies

In the last group match, opener David Warner’s (122) century followed by stumper Alex Carey valiant (85 off 69) was not enough to help Australia overhaul the 325-run target against South Africa.

South Africa had the last laugh in the affair as their bowlers rose to the occasion and their discipline effort restricted the defending champions at 310. Kasigo Rabada was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/56.

Chasing the target, Australia lost in-form opener Aaron Finch early with just five runs on board and things went worse for them as the Aussies as they lost Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis (22) and Glen Maxwell (12).

Warner kept one end intact but lacked support from the other end before Carey stepped up to show his class. Warner fell in the 40th over but Carey kept Australia’s hope alive however, he too departed in the 46th over as the defending champions lost the affair by a meagre10 runs.

Earlier, South Africa rode a super batting effort from their top order to post a challenging 325/6 in the last round-robin league match of the 2019 ICC World Cup against defending champions Australia here on Saturday.

Skipper Faf du Plessis led the Proteas’ charge with a century. He was South Africa’s top scorer with 100 runs off 94 balls. His innings was studded with seven boundaries and two sixes.

He posted a 151-run partnership with Rassie van der Dussen to set the base for a big total. Rassie posted a steady 95 off 97 balls.

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