Brett Lee took two wickets as the Aussies hit back to restrict India

"The wicket was very good and India came up a bit short with their total," he said after seeing his side reach the semis with a six-wicket victory.

"They got off to a pretty good start but our bowlers pegged them back and finished off the innings well.

"Then our batting at the top was good. We played a good game of cricket."

Interview: Australia skipper Ricky Ponting

India were going well thanks to Virender Sehwag (65) and captain Rahul Dravid (52) but apart from them, no-one threatened to take the game away from the world champions.

Veteran paceman Glenn McGrath was one of the reasons they struggled, bowling a miserly spell in which he took 2-34 off 10 overs.

Veteran McGrath showed signs of returning to his best form in Mohali

"I felt good, it came out well and I got a bit of rhythm back," said the 36-year-old, who is expected to play a key role for the Aussies in the Ashes series against England which starts next month.

"My goal from the start of the season was to improve with each game and I feel I've done that - hopefully it will keep going that way and I can get ready for a big summer.

"Bowling in these conditions is tough and when I go home it will feel a bit like Christmas!"

The Aussies also got off to a flying start, with Adam Gilchrist (23), Shane Watson (50) and Ponting (58) thrashing the ball to all parts.

It still needed man-of-the-match Damien Martyn to play a composed unbeaten knock of 73 off 104 balls to steer them home.

"He came in at a difficult time, it was a hard wicket to start on against the spinners," Ponting added.

"But he showed how good a player he can be for us. Damien played very well and finished the game off tremendously."

Martyn said: "Early on I didn't know where I was going to get a run with Harbhajan Singh bowling but we were lucky we had a great start with wickets in hand.

"Harbhajan can easily break it open and win the game for India so the plan was to play it safely against him.