Turning point for us was the loss to India, says Starc

Australia are enjoying a five-match winning streak at the World Cup and pace spearhead Mitchell Starc feels the loss to India in their third tie was the turning point in the reigning champions' impressive run in to the semifinals.

Australia, who are the only team to have qualified for the semifinals, have won seven of their eight games. They crushed trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand by 86 runs on Saturday to consolidate their position at the top of the points table.

"Since the India game, we've taken wickets through the middle fairly regularly, and whether it's attacking more or I think the biggest part was the execution," Starc said after the victory against New Zealand.

Australia's only loss in the World Cup has come at the hands of India, who defeated the five-time champions by 36 runs and Starc believes that loss marked the improvement in their game.

"We were all probably a little bit off in that Indian game. I think the turning point was probably that Indian game where we had a good chat as a bowling group and a batting group and we've just continued to improve as a whole group of players from that game."