AUS VS ENG - 2nd Semi-Final (2 v 3), ICC Cricket World Cup 2019

You're usually asked to remember names. Now remember this stat -- it's been 9969 days since that fateful evening at Melbourne when Wasim Akram ripped through Alan Lamb, ripping through a entire country's hearts. They've had to wait for over 27 years to deserve a team worthy of getting into the finals again. Or maybe, just maybe they needed a bunch of boys whose mental memory doesn't allow them to remember the events of that disaster live. Beware, New Zealand. Two days, and that'll determine how worth the last four years of planning have been. For now, this is Vineet Anantharaman signing off on behalf of Akshay Maanay, Sriram AS, Varun Dikshit, Hari Sadanandan, Pradeep Krishnamurthy and our scorers, Sreenivas and Venky. Until the fun that Sunday promises, ta ta!!

Eoin Morgan | Winning skipper: Absolutely delighted. I would like to thank the fans who've come out today, our fans have been great with their support. Edgbaston has always been great for us. Having beaten India on this ground, we would have come in with similar confidence (had we faced India here). It is very important to take confidence from the group stages into the semi-finals. We talked about wanting to get better from game to game and we wanted to set the tone from ball one and we made Australia pay. Extremely happy for Woakes; he is a cool customer and has been one of the best bowlers for us in the last couple of years. He goes about his business day in and day out exceptionally. Him and Jofra were probably the standout performance for us in the last four years (referring to today's first spell). The guys coming after that really backed them up well. Roy and Jonny at the top of the order are really imposing when they get themselves in. They are in the form of their lives and they take advantage of that. They set the tone for us. I was six in 1992, I don't remember it, but I have seen a lot of it in the highlights. It is an opportunity for us on Sunday, a huge one at that too. Looking back at where we were in 2015 and looking ahead to Sunday is a dramatic improvement. Everyone in that dressing room must take a lot of credit for that. Making the most of that opportunity in getting the result will be great for us.

Aaron Finch | Losing skipper: We were just totally outplayed today. The way they set the tone with the ball and getting to 27/3 after ten overs was a huge part of the game. And was too hard for us to get back from. You do expect the new ball to seam first up, but they bowled really well by targetting the stumps and bowled a great length, something that we tried to do as well. But plenty of positives for us in this World Cup especially given where we were last year when we came here in England. You always want to win, but really proud of the group to get us here. In the last six months or so, there has been a lot of character shown, but it still hurts. We tried to change it up as much as we could, kept looking for wicket taking options. Just couldn't find it because they played exceptionally well. But they played really well, we know how dynamic they are and how dominating they are when they get on top. It's just one of those days, things didn't go our way and when you don't execute your plans well, you get hurt by a really good team. You've got to beat everyone in every condition. But things didn't go for us with a couple of injuries, but that's not really an excuse. We came here expecting to win, but it wasn't to be.

Chris Woakes | MoM: This is pretty sweet, incredible performance from the whole team. We started well with the bowling performance. There were few nerves around in the morning but that is natural going into the semifinal of such a big tournament. I think the way we produced the goods show how good we are as a team. I didn't think it was a bad wicket by any means, I think we just found the right lengths. And when you pick up wickets early, they have to rebuild and we kept the pressure. We could have bowled fuller at Lord's, we got our lengths little bit wrong that day. We came into the knockout stage with good form and momentum. We played two good games against India and New Zealand and then we carried on that today. I was three years old in 1992, it was a while ago. We have one game to go, hopefully, we will go all the way. Coming into the World Cup as favourites, it was important for us to reach the knockout stages. It's an incredible feeling to win the semi-final against Australia at the best ground in the world.

Wins with most balls to spare in WC semis
188 Aus v Eng Leeds 1975
119 WI v NZ Oval 1975
111 Aus v SA Gros Islet 2007
107 Eng vs Aus Edgbaston 2019*

- Australia remain winless across formats in Edgbaston since 2002, while England are unbeaten in Edgbaston in their last 11 games here across formats.

- England hadn't beaten any of India, New Zealand & Australia in a World Cup match since 1992. They have now beaten all three of India, New Zealand & Australia in their last three matches and march into the final of World Cup 2019.

Australia in World Cup semifinals:
Beat Eng by four wkts, 1975
Beat Pak by 18 runs, 1987
Beat WI by five runs, 1996
Tied with SA, 1999
Beat SL by 48 runs, 2003
Beat SA by seven wkts, 2007
Beat Ind by 95 runs, 2015
LOST to Eng by eight wkts, 2019 - First loss in a WC semifinal

17:15 Local Time, 16:15 GMT, 21:45 IST: Edgbaston explodes. No literally, with firecracker after firecracker being let loose. The clouds have opened up too quite heavily, just in time. Oh this is scripted, someone, somewhere is writing a bloody good one. The game's going to have a new champion. And England deserve every bit and piece of this. From nearly getting knocked a couple of weeks ago to having to face a virtual semifinal every game since .. and the habit's now brought out their clinical best. The only thing that went in Australia's favour all day was the first ball of the match which Warner drilled through extra cover, but that was all. The 81 overs since were all about the English momentum snowballing. When you're reduced to 14/3 with Woakes and Archer wrecking havoc, there's really nothing much you can do. But Smith tried, Carey supported, but Bairstow smashed, Roy smashed them bigger and things weren't even a contest. Stay put, Mike Atherton's leading the post-match questions under rains ..

Behrendorff to Morgan, FOUR, swiped uppishly. A date with Lord's is England's .. and there's never really something sweeter than thrashing the old enemy. Also if you really care, this went over mid-on, not with a lot of timing, but with everybody inside the ring in the end, it doesn't even matter

Starc to Root, no run, 144kph, late cute stab, oh it had a boundary written all over. But Maxwell - the backward point guy - will delay it for a bit, diving like only he can. Okay, still, 2 ..

Starc to Root, no run, 146kph, a hint of inward seam off a good length. Root couldn't care less, tapping it on the up to cover

Hussain Juzer Dahodwala: "For 3 consecutive WC hosts will play in the finals."

Starc to Morgan, 1 run, 149kph in this yorker. Morgan digs it to cover, takes that guy on. Okay, 2 ..

Starc to Root, 1 run, tries a bouncer. Root pulls it crunchily as well, but there's a deep mid-wicket

Starc to Root, FOUR, 144kph. The slightest of width, and Root's brought Lord's down to one shot -- courtesy, a flashy square cut

Starc to Root, no run, 141kph, tummy-lined. Root lines up beside with his hop, dabbing it away to backward point

Mitchell Starc [8.0-0-64-1] is back into the attack

Behrendorff to Root, 1 run, high full toss, whipped away behind square .. 8

Behrendorff to Root, no run, 129kph, off-based yorker. A mere squeeze now

Behrendorff to Root, FOUR, 118kph, loose half-tracker. Gets some tennis ball bounce out of this but Root knows mid-wicket is left open .. he jumps, takes it airborne and smashes it away into cow corner. The distance to Lord's is down to single digits