India, Australia fight for a spot in World Cup final 2015

The Sydney Cricket Ground over the years has witnessed many milestones and nail-biters that reverberate on every corner of the stadium once you enter the arena. Situated in the east, Moore Park has been a spectator to many a heart-breaks and Thursday's match will add to the long list of heartaches.

One of the unique benefits of watching cricket at SCG is that you are always close to the action from virtually any point of the ground. The stadium has been re-constructed but the iconic green-roofed Ladies pavilion still maintains its old-world charm.

Talking about history, it would be a crime to miss out on the strained relationship between the SCG Trust and the New South Wales Cricket Association, that reached its lowest point in trying to bring Kerry Packer's famous or ill-famous World Series Cricket to this venue.

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India and Australia are all set to re-visit their old rivalry in this same ground as one of them will go through to the final of the World Cup to face New Zealand on March 29.

Predominantly, it has a history of producing batting friendly conditions and the pitch for the semi-final will be no different. The weather can play its part but mostly (if at all) it will be a passing shower which will not have that much of an impact on the pitch but the wet outfield can make things difficult for the bowlers, not only to hold the ball but it generally gets easier to bat as it tends to skid on. Weather for Thursday is clear and sunny and hopefully it stays that way.

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In a big match, it is always advisable to win the toss and bat first although Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni can surprise anybody including himself with his moves at times.India, in all likelihood, will go in with the same team, and rightly so, as it is not always a great idea to tinker with the winning formula.

The batting had been put to test in the group stages against West Indies and Zimbabwe and the middle-order has come out with flying colours as Suresh Raina and Dhoni have been among the runs in the last couple of matches.

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The openers have done the job for their team by getting them off to a good start and the batting seems to be ready to take on the Aussies. Virat Kohli has had a quiet tournament going by his standards and his special liking for the Kangaroos might just get him back to his best. Anyway, he is a too good a player to miss out on so many matches and is due for a big one.

Australia, on the other hand, have a few more worries to sort out before they meet the defending champions. Aaron Finch, apart from his century in the first match has not done anything in the tournament, and his susceptibility towards the ball coming in, has got him into trouble in more than a couple of occasions in his career.

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Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav will be well aware of that fact and there is no reason why our bowlers will not be able to exploit the weakness. Michael Clarke and Glenn Maxwell along with Shane Watson have had their fair share of problems with the short ball and the Indians will be queuing up to take advantage of their weakness.

David Warner will be the key for Australia and going by his track record against India, he can take the match away from the Men in Blue in no time.Australia will not look to make any changes in their squad and it will be only be fair to stick with Josh Hazlewood over Pat Cummins, given his performance in the quarter-final against Pakistan.

Ashwin and Jadeja will come into play in the Sydney track and can suddenly turn into attacking options for Dhoni that will only add to India's potency in the attack. Just the opposite for Australia as they will be looking to exploit the turn of the wicket through a part-timer Maxwell that can very quickly turn out to be a headache for Clarke.Both the teams have match winners in their side and at the moment it is evenly poised with India having their noses slightly ahead in terms of fire-power in their spinning department.