England need 224 to join New Zealand in the final.

Reigning champions Australia lost openers, Aaron Finch and David Warner, early on as they slipped to 10 for two in their World Cup semi-final against England at Edgbaston.

With superb bowling from England after losing the toss, Woakes and Archer put on a clinic as far as new-ball bowling is concerned and at 14/3, Australia were down for the count.

However, another ball-tampering aficionado Steve Smith's pedigree in knockout games came to the fore yet again, as he conjured his fourth fifty-plus knock in as many KO games to bail Australia out a bit.

Wicketkeeper Alex Carey gave him good support but just when the duo were threatening to take the game away, the southpaw fell to Rashid who also removed Marcus Stoinis in the same over.

Mitchell Starc then gave Smith company, and another handy partnership came up but once again, losing wickets in clumps hurt Australia as they ended with a total that's clearly 25-30 runs short at least.

Adil Rashid produced decisive strikes to turn the tide. It's a surface that has help for the bowlers and so Australia aren't out of it yet.

Earlier, Australia captain Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bat against England in the second semi-final of the Cricket World Cup at Edgbaston on Thursday (Jul 11).

The defending champions were forced into making one change to their team with Peter Handscomb replacing Usman Khawaja who has been ruled out of the tournament with a hamstring injury.