Australian captain Steve Smith has revealed his side "guessed right" when it came to preparing for their semi-final showdown against India.
After securing a spot in the knockout stages of the ICC Champions Trophy despite a rain-affected tournament, the Aussies flew to Dubai ahead of their next game.
While it wasn't a guarantee, officials were hopeful that flying over early and escaping the strict security bubble in Pakistan would result in a clash against India, who have refused to play in the host nation due to political tension.
If it backfired, the Aussies would have been forced to fly back to Pakistan days later.
Luckily for Smith and his troops, that wasn't the case.
Steve Smith speaks to media. Â Getty
"We guessed right in the end," the skipper told media on Tuesday morning (AEDT).
"Ideal to be here and have a couple of days preparation. Had we stayed and waited for last night's result we would have had to have flown here today and play tomorrow, not get a chance to train on the surface or get used to the conditions.
"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 it made sense to us.
"We had a little reset and a chance to have a couple of days here outside of a pretty strict sort of bubble in Pakistan with the security and stuff.
"It's been nice to just have a couple of days chill here, a bit of training. A couple of guys have played some golf and wandered around and done some stuff like that.
"We're well prepared for tomorrow now and looking forward to it."
Australia won their only game of the Champions Trophy group stage, chasing down a mammoth total set by England, before washouts against South Africa and Afghanistan.
Smith refused to give away who would replace injured opener Matt Short for the must-win clash on Tuesday night (AEDT), with young gun Jake Fraser-McGurk in the mix.
Matt Short won't play in the semis due to injury. Â Albert Perez via Getty Images
India will bring their customary spin-heavy attack to the game, which is something Smith and the rest of the batters are well aware of.
"I think for us the game's probably won and lost how we play this spin, particularly in the middle overs, the way we get through there. It's going to be a challenge," he said.
"There's going to be some spin by the looks of it and we've got to counter that.
"We've achieved everything that we wanted to. We made the semis at this present stage. That was the first objective. Hopefully, we can get another one up on India."