Ending the monopoly of Australia on World Cup championship, India steered its way on Thursday to have a titanic clash with arch rivals Pakistan in the semi finals of the cricket World Cup 2011 next Wednesday.

Taking revenge against Australia which defeated India in the 2003 World Cup finals, Indian middle order batsmen Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina played brilliant innings to bring victory in the quarter finals played at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmadabad.

Man of the Match Yuvraj Singh with his unbeaten knock of 57 electrified the stadium with his steady knock hitting boundaries and picking up singles and twos wherever possible. Suresh Raina, joining Yuvraj after the fall of captain MS Dhoni, justified his inclusion in the team by scoring 34 runs and exhibiting superb time sense and grittiness in picking up the easy balls for massive fours.

At one point of time, India stood at 187 for five raising doubts in the minds of millions of Indians over their recovery in the match but Yuvraj and Raina never lost their cool in reaching the target of 261 after they joined hands in thwarting the attempts of Australia to continue their supremacy in the cricket world cup.

Earlier, Australia won the toss and decided to bat first and made a moderate score of 260 runs losing five wickets. Captain Ricky Ponting scored century (104) but it was of no use in the end.