India defeated Australia to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup

Rohit Sharma led from the front with a thrilling 92 as India defeated Australia by 24 runs in St Lucia on Monday to seal their place in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.

The Indian captain’s dashing innings – he faced just 41 balls, including seven fours and eight sixes – was the cornerstone of a total of 205-5 after losing the toss.

Australia eventually ended their reply at 181-7, with left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh taking 3-37.

India will now face defending champions England in Thursday’s semi-final in Guyana.

The defeat meant that Australia’s fate was no longer in its own hands.

Afghanistan, who pulled off a stunning upset last time out by beating Australia by 21 runs, will qualify for the semi-finals if they beat Bangladesh in the final Group 1 match of the Super Eights later on Monday.

Australia lost David Warner for just six seconds as the experienced left-handed opener was canceled out by Arshdeep’s full delivery, which he could only shift to Suryakumar Yadav at slip.

Travis Head, whose stunning century last year crushed Indian dreams of a 50-over World Cup final victory on home soil, kept Australia in the hunt with a well-crafted 76 off 43 balls.

His second wicket stand of 81 with skipper Mitchell Marsh seemed to turn the tide.

But Marsh was brilliantly caught one-handed on the boundary by a leaping Axar Patel off Kuldeep Yadav for 37.

Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep then bowled dangerman Glenn Maxwell for 20 with an excellent wrong-un on his way to fine figures of 2-24 in his maximum four overs.

And when Head holed out a beautifully disguised slower ball from pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Australia were all but defeated 150-5 in the 17th over.

Earlier, star Indian batsman Virat Kohli holed out for a five-ball duck off Josh Hazlewood, with Tim David taking a fine running catch over his shoulder.

But fellow opener Rohit then went wild. He was particularly harsh on Mitchell Starc, the only change in the Australian team after their painful defeat to Afghanistan.

He hit the left-arm fast bowler for 29 runs in a third over, where he hit four sixes – two in successive balls over extra cover, a monster hit over deep midwicket and an extremely sharp full toss over the wicketkeeper.

But when Rohit threatened the first hundred of this tournament, Starc bowled him with an excellent yorker. (AFP)