McGrath won a personal battle

It's great to make the semifinals beating hosts India in a quarterfinal clash. The best aspect of our win is that we have improved with every game of the tournament.

It was a good toss that Rahul Dravid won, and his decision to bat was not a surprising one, considering the true nature of the wicket. It had bounce and carry, but it was still a surface that was great for strokeplay.

I decided to give Glenn McGrath the new ball for two reasons. The bounce was good and at the length that he bowls, the extra height makes him very hard to play. Secondly, he has an excellent record against Tendulkar, and I wanted to see how they shaped up against each other. As things turned out, Glenn won this battle as well, and his bowling at the start of the innings was exceptional.

However, India did not do too badly, with Virender Sehwag going after Brett Lee. The latter did not execute our plans too well in his first two spells - he was too full and wide when he bowled to Sehwag, and that allowed India a respectable start.

Pulled back

Fortunately, Nathan Bracken and Shane Watson were able to pull things back, and after that even Sehwag had to earn his runs. Seeing the wicket play in the first half, I knew there would not be too much deterioration in the second half either.

The Indians are a little thin on pace bowling resources, and the strategy was to target them at the start of the innings. Both Adam Gilchrist and Watson did this in magnificent style.

Once we were 100 in less than 15 overs, we got into cruise mode and things went smoothly thereafter. Once Harbhajan Singh came on earlier than planned, we knew that the pressure was on the Indians and we just had to play sensibly.

I was particularly happy to see Watson click at the start of the innings. His game is beautifully suited to batting at the top because he can pull and drive.

Playing him at the top of the order gives us many options as far as team composition is concerned, and since we realised that we cannot play both Brad Hogg and Watson down the order, this is a really good option.

It's amazing to see how all the subcontinent teams have been eliminated from the Champions Trophy.

I see no theory or link between the exit of the three teams, though. Pakistan got a rough wicket against the South Africans, while India fell short narrowly against the West Indies.

Looking ahead at the semifinals, it's good that we are playing our match at Mohali itself because we are now totally acclimatised and comfortable with these conditions.