A method, control system, and combined cycle power plant are disclosed herein, which enable balancing thrust between a high pressure (HP) section and an intermediate pressure (IP) section of an opposed flow steam turbine in a combined cycle power plant, including predicting or determining a presence or absence of a thrust imbalance between the HP section and the IP section based on steam flow, pressure, and temperature data at an HP section inlet; and based on the presence or absence of the thrust imbalance, adjusting an amount of steam that enters the HP section.