World Cup favourites Australia are heading for the last-chance saloon after suffering a shock defeat last night.

They were outgunned by Denmark, marshalled superbly by Eastbourne star Nicki Pedersen, on a night of high drama in the second semi-final at Arlington Stadium.

The Danes now go into Saturday's final at Poole, where their opponents will include Monday night's winners, Great Britain.

Australia, meanwhile, must scrap it out in tomorrow's race-off at Poole against Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic for one of the two remaining places.

The Danes were deserved winners, with Australia arguably paying the penalty for missing the practice session earlier in the day.

Yet, with 21 of the 25 heats gone, the lights threatened, literally, to go out on Denmark's challenge.

As the riders tore round the track, the stadium lights blew a fuse, plunging part of the circuit into darkness.

There was a half-hour delay before normal service was resumed, and suddenly the Danes seemed to have lost the winning touch.

Australia could have snatched it at the death, but when first Steve Johnston and then Leigh Adams careered headlong into the barrier by the pits it was all over bar the shouting.

At the final count, Denmark won it by eight, 60 points to 52, with the Czech Republic on 32 and Italy on 14.

The Danes won 14 races in all, including six on the bounce at one stage, but the Aussies were thrown a lifeline with the joker card.

Adams won heat 17 for six points, cutting the arrears from seven to three, and when Jason Crump inflicted Nicki Pedersen's only defeat of the night in the next the gap was down to two.

Denmark, however, weathered the storm, while the Czechs, and towards the end, the Italians played the role of spoilers admirably.

The Aussies were under the cosh right from the start when Ryan Sullivan trailed in third behind Hans Andersen and Ales Dryml.

Nicki Pedersen made it two out of two for Denmark before Australia hit back with three wins in succession.

Adams won a thriller against Kenneth Bjerre, who led until the last lap, Crump beat Niels-Kristian Iver-sen in the next and Adam Shields marked his World Cup debut with a win over Bjarne Pedersen.

The shocks continued with Denmark winning three of the next four heats.

Adams was beaten by Iversen, Shields was only third behind Andersen, and Sullivan was beaten out of sight by Nicki Pedersen with Lukas Dryml in second place.

The Danes led by four points, but that was cut to one when Bjerre crashed in the next, puncturing a section of the air fence.

Crump's unbeaten record went when he got the worst of a frantic first bend and had no chance of catching Bjerre, who had flown.

Shields picked up a lucky second place behind Iversen when a furious Lukas Dryml's bike packed up, and Denmark piled on the agony via wins for Bjarne Pedersen, Andersen, Nicki Pedersen and Bjarne Pedersen again with the Aussies chasing shadows.

Australia were in desperate need of some help. It came in the form of the joker, but the scales were balanced when Shields lost control while trying to overtake Bjerre.

Nicki Pedersen won an amazing affair from Eastbourne team-mate Shields and Topinka, and Lukas Dryml had the final word with a tremendous win over Andersen and Crump.