Chennai-India set up a mouthwatering World Cup quarterfinal against defending champion Australia after beating West Indies by 80 runs in the last group match yesterday.West Indies will meet Pakistan in the opening quarterfinal on Wednesday.India claimed second place in Group B and will host Ricky Ponting's Australians at Ahmedabad, while West Indies finished fourth and will face Group A winner Pakistan in Dhaka on Wednesday."Australia are a very good side, they play tough cricket, they're quite expressive on the field," India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said.
"But it's not about which opponent you're playing, it's all about how you're preparing and what you really want to achieve. We'll give it our best shot."In the other quarterfinals, Group B leader South Africa is against New Zealand at Dhaka on Friday and Sri Lanka hosts England on Saturday at Colombo.The home crowd in Chennai was almost silent as West Indies reached 154-2 chasing 269 against India, but once Zaheer Khan bowled Devon Smith for 81, the visitors crumbled, losing eight wickets for 34 runs.In yesterday's other match, Zimbabwe defeated Kenya by 161 runs in a game between two eliminated teams.
The speed of West Indies' demise made India's win look more convincing than it was.In reality, there were tense moments for the home fans as their side struggled to get on top of a West Indies lineup missing Chris Gayle, Kemar Roach and Shivnarine Chanderpaul."The game really changed once Zaheer gave us that breakthrough that was really needed," Dhoni said."Before that Devon was batting really well, we gave him opportunities to score and he really capitalized on that. But once we got his wicket, we were able to put pressure on the other batsmen." (AP)
icc world cup at a glance
Group A
Teams P W T L NR Pts
x-Pakistan 6 5 0 1 0 10
x-Sri Lanka 6 4 0 1 1 9
x-Australia 6 4 0 1 1 9
x-New Zealand 6 4 0 2 0 8
Zimbabwe 6 2 0 4 0 4
Canada 6 1 0 5 0 2
Kenya 6 0 0 6 0 0
Group B
Teams P W T L NR Pts
x-South Africa 6 5 0 1 0 10
x-India 6 4 1 1 0 9
x-England 6 3 1 2 0 7
x-West Indies 6 3 0 3 0 6
Bangladesh 6 3 0 3 0 6
Ireland 6 2 0 4 0 4
Netherlands 6 0 0 6 0 0
x-advances to quarterfinals
QUARTERFINALS
Wednesday:
Dhaka, Bangladesh, Pakistan vs West Indies.
Thursday:
Ahmedabad, India, India vs Australia.
Friday:
Dhaka, Bangladesh, South Africa vs New Zealand.
Saturday:
Colombo, Sri Lanka,
Sri Lanka vs England.
SEMIFINALS
March 29:
Colombo, Sri Lanka,
QF1 vs QF3.
March 30:
Mohali, India,
QF2 vs QF4.
FINAL
April 2:
Mumbai, India,
Semifinal winners.