Australia skipper Steve Smith has backed the decision of his team and South Africa travelling to Dubai ahead of the India vs New Zealand fixture on Mar 2. With the first semi-final set to be played on Tuesday (Mar 4) in Dubai, both teams were waiting on who gets to play in UAE. 

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After India beat New Zealand and finished on top of Group A, Australia stayed in Dubai but South Africa had to travel back after a 18-hour sojourn in Dubai. The Proteas will now play New Zealand in the second semi-final on March 5 in Lahore, Pakistan.

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"We guessed right in the end," Australia captain Steven Smith said during the pre-match press conference on Mar 3. 

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"So yeah, ideal to be here and have a couple of days' preparation. I think had we stayed and waited for last night's result, we would have had to have flown here today and play tomorrow.

"We wouldn't get a chance to train on the surface or get used to the conditions that we have at the academy and if we had to go back, we would have just got on the same plane back as New Zealand and had a day there before playing. So this arrangement made sense to us," he added.

The Dubai drama has been called out by many former and current players and tagged as India getting one venue advantage while other teams played on different venues across Pakistan including their matches against India in Dubai.

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India skipper Rohit Sharma, however, countered this and said: "Every time, the pitch is giving you different challenges. The three matches that we played here, the pitch has behaved differently. This is not our home, this is Dubai. We don't play so many matches here, and this is new for us too."