India's Yuvraj Singh swing for the boundary against Australia during their Twenty20 World Championship semi-final in Durban yesterday. Singh made a match-winning 70 off only 30 balls.

DURBAN, South Africa (AP):

YUVRAJ SINGH scored 70 runs off 30 balls to help India defeat Australia by 15 runs yesterday in the World Twenty20 semi-finals.

Pakistan also advanced to tomorrow's final in Johannesburg with a six-wicket win over New Zealand earlier in the day.

Yuvraj's innings catapulted India's score to 188 for five after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat at the Kingsmead Stadium. Australia were then restricted to 173 for seven after fine performances by all of the Indian bowlers.

India's batsmen started slowly in the face of a hostile opening spell from Brett Lee and nagging accuracy from Nathan Bracken.

Virender Sehwag was the first to be dismissed, going in the sixth over after only scoring nine off 13 balls.

Gautam Gambhir made 24 off 25 balls before Yuvraj came on, putting up 94 in partnership with Robin Uthappa for the third wicket.

Impressive haul

Uthappa was impressive enough with 34 off 28 balls, including a four and three sixes, but he was overshadowed by the hitting of Yuvraj who opened his scoring with a huge six off Lee.

He hit four more sixes and added four fours in his innings, and his hitting allowed Dhoni to tee off and hit 36 off 18 balls.

"I just decided to play positively," Yuvraj said. "I'm happy with the way I'm hitting the ball."

Mitchell Johnson was the best of Australia's bowlers, picking up two wickets in his four overs for 31 runs.

Australia's batsmen started aggressively with Adam Gilchrist scoring 22 off 13 balls before India bowler Sree Sreesanth took his wicket. Sreesanth's second over was a maiden and he finished with 2-12 off four overs. He also got rid of Matthew Hayden, who finished with 62 off 47 balls, including four fours and four sixes. After Hayden's departure, Australia's batting faltered.

"We knew we were going to have to bat well," Gilchrist said. "And some of their bowlers bowled very, very well."

In the first semi-final, Imran Nazir scored his first Twenty20 half-century to lead Pakistan over New Zealand.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori won the toss at the Newlands Stadium and his team scored 143 for eight in its 20 overs. Pakistan chased the target down easily, reaching 147 for four with seven balls to spare.

50-run partnership

New Zealand got off to a good start with a 50-run partnership between opening batsmen Brendon McCullum and Lou Vincent, but a 33-minute break for rain broke the rhythm of the innings and Vincent fell to a sharp caught-and-bowled chance off Fawad Alam when he had 28.

McCullum fell soon afterward for 26. The New Zealand middle-order batsmen all managed to get starts, but none of them turned them into substantial scores.

Bowler Umar Gul finished with 3-15 off his four overs, and his wickets were Scot Styris, Peter Fulton and Jacob Oram.

Gul came on after the 12th over - as he has throughout the tournament - and bowled his spell unchanged.

"It was a team decision that I bowl that way, and I was happy to do that, even though I usually take the new ball," Gul said.

New Zealand's batsmen managed to get themselves into

AP