Will India outplay Autralia?

Chris Dhambarage reporting

CRICKET: India shocked South Africa by 37 runs to set up a semifinal showdown with the reigning World champions Australia in Durban while Pakistan will take on New Zealand in the other semifinal of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Cape Town with both games scheduled for today.

India's entry into the last four of the competition and South Africa's exit from another major tournament was certainly the biggest upset in this inaugural event. The South Africans were unbeaten until then but they just could not hold their nerves at a critical stage of the game and were knocked out on the net run rate system.

In fact both India and South Africa had the same number of points in group E of the Super Eight having recorded two victories each. But India by virtue of their convincing victory in the deciding fixture edged out both South Africa and New Zealand to take the top spot in their group.

India will now move into the semifinals against Australia with their heads high and will be performing under conditions more familiar to their slow bowlers. In contrast the Australians need to quickly adjust themselves having played their previous game against Sri Lanka at Cape Town.

The other encouraging factor for the Indians will be that their semifinal will be played under lights and that will give their seamers a great chance of moving the ball with some extra pace. This was quite clear when they stunned the South Africans in a similar manner with R. P. Singh and Sreesanth getting the ball to move to a great extent.

However the Indian batsmen are certain to receive the same treatment at the hands of the Australian fast bowlers who are capable of producing the same form under seaming conditions. The biggest threat no doubt will come from Stuart Clark who destroyed the Sri Lankan batting with career best figures in Cape Town a couple of days ago.

Australia are of course chasing another World title following their success at the recent ICC World Cup held in the West Indies where they edged out Sri Lanka on the Duckworth Lewis scoring method in the final.

This time however they are compelled to battle it out minus their captain Ricky Ponting who has been ruled out of the entire tournament with an injury.

Even then acting captain Adam Gilchrist has done a magnificent job and the entire team rose to the occasion when they are under tremendous pressure. In fact they were doubtful of even making it to the Super Eight stage of the competition following a humiliating defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe.

The Australians fought their way into the final round but again they suffered a stunning blow while losing to Pakistan in another important game. But every time they were down and out they managed to raise their heads and fight back and the manner they came back against Sri Lanka was really outstanding.

Pakistan of course will go into their semifinal clash against New Zealand with a one hundred percent record having swept aside all opponents in group F of the Super Eight.

In addition they have maintained the best net run rate out of all the teams and should be considered as the favourites to lift the title.

The manner Pakistan have progressed in this tournament has been quite outstanding especially after their premier fast bowler Sohaib Akhtar was controversially sent home following a brawl with one of his teammates.

But they have recovered magnificently since then and now look set to redeem some of their lost prestige following their early exit at the recent ICC World Cup in the West Indies.