India will play Australia in the Dubai semi-final, and New Zealand will play SA in the Lahore semi-final

India will face Australia in the first semi-final of the Champions Trophy in Dubai on Tuesday after they beat New Zealand by 44 runs in the final group-stage fixture at the same venue on Sunday. New Zealand, meanwhile, will travel to Lahore to meet South Africa in the second semi-final on Wednesday. Due to tangled scheduling, both Australia and South Africa had already flown to Dubai, with an ICC official saying the decision had been taken to allow the side that plays the semi-final in Dubai (Australia in this case) on March 4 the maximum time to prepare for that contest. However, it means South Africa find themselves in the sub-optimal position of having flown from Pakistan to Dubai recently, only to return to Pakistan soon after. India was supposed to play the semi-finals in Dubai, regardless of their Group A standings, despite not playing any of their games in Pakistan during the tournament. This resulted in the tangled scheduling. Such a scenario became all but inevitable after India refused to travel to Pakistan for the tournament, despite the country officially being the sole host of the tournament. The PCB had tried for months to get India to come to Pakistan, even suggesting that Lahore host all of their games. The BCCI, on the other hand, claimed that the Indian government denied the team permission to play cricket in Lahore. New Zealand are set to take an early-morning flight to Lahore from Dubai on Monday while South Africa will fly back to Pakistan later in the day after having spent around 36 hours in Dubai. At the post-game presentation, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner stated, "Yeah...we will leave [Dubai] at 12.30 or 1 o'clock." "We get there and we can rest up and train and be ready to go." While Rohit Sharma was pleased with India's showing - they are the only team with three wins in as many games in the Champions Trophy - he turned his focus to the semi-final against Australia. After the victory over New Zealand, Rohit stated, "I think it [momentum] is very, very critical when you're playing such a short tournament." "You try and possibly win every game that is in front of you and try and do everything right and while doing that, there are bound to be mistakes but as long as you correct them quickly, that is what matters. I thought the mistakes that we've been making from game one now, we tend to correct those mistakes and that is what is required. "It [semi-final] is going to be a good game and obviously we know Australia has a rich history of playing ICC tournaments well. We do understand that; it's about what we want to do against the opposition and try and do that right. We're all looking forward to that competition, and we hope to secure one more victory.