Australia secured their place in the knockout stage of the Champions Trophy after securing a two-wicket victory over Pakistan at SuperSport Park on Wednesday.

The result means that Australia face England in the first semi-final at Centurion on Friday while Pakistan head to the Wanderers on Saturday to face New Zealand.

The game - which for the most part never got out of second gear - roared into life in the last hour as the Australians managed to make a meal of chasing down a below par target of just 206.

It appeared the chase would be a walk in the park for the Australians when Shane Watson (24) and Tim Paine (29) got the men from Down Under off to a rollicking start, rushing to 35 without loss after five overs.

Even after the openers had departed, the impetus was firmly with Australia as Ponting (32) and Mike Hussey (64) built towards the modest total with a steady 81-run partnership.

However with proceedings meandering towards a seemingly inevitable conclusion the Pakistan bowlers bit back, with lethal pace bowling from Mohammad Asif and Rana Naved and some canny spin from Saeed Ajmal creating all sorts of problems.

As Australian hearts fluttered wildly with nerves, Brett Lee and Nathan Hauritz squeaked out the required runs to sneak the much-needed victory off the last ball of the game, although in essence the job was done when a tie had been secured from the penultimate delivery.

Earlier, some disciplined seam bowling helped Australia to restrict Pakistan to just 205 for six in the Group A clash.

Much of the pre-match talk surrounded the possibility of Pakistan fielding an under-strength side, knowing that defeat would see their arch-rivals India knocked out of the competition. To their credit they shied away from doing so, making just two changes with Misbah-ul-Haq replacing the injured Imran Nazir and Mohammad Asif getting a run in place of Mohammad Aamer.

With Pakistan already through to the semi-final stage they could be excused for lacking a bit of intensity, but it was the Australians who looked in disarray early, arriving late for the national anthems.

The men in green maintained the ascendancy early on with Shahid Afridi - promoted up the order in Nazir's absence - and Kamran Akmal (44 runs off 63 balls) taking a liking to Peter Siddle, while managing to stave off the impressive Brett Lee.

The momentum shifted with the arrival of Mitchell Johnson to the attack; with the pacer removing Afridi (15 off 18) in his first over after the talismanic batsman skied an attempted pull to backward square-leg, where James Hopes took a great catch.

Nathan Hauritz redeemed himself after dropping Akmal earlier in the day with a tight spell of spin bowling as the Pakistani batsmen struggled to score at any great rate during the middle overs.

The going was slow throughout as the overs meandered by, with a flourish from Mohammad Yousuf (45) and Misbah (41) late in the knock giving the small crowd something to cheer about.

Misbah made his return to the team count with a well-played knock before perishing in the final over of the innings, treading on his stumps as he looked to get back and play a wide delivery - truly bizarre.

The win was by no means convincing from Australia, but Ricky Ponting will ultimately be happy to have accomplished the first step to tournament success.

Pakistan will be buoyed by the return to action of Mohammad Asif who, after an unflattering start, showed how much he has to offer the team.

Julia Harris at Centurion