India, Pakistan duel overshadows South Africa push

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan's looming World Cup semi-final confrontation reduced South Africa's last-eight clash against New Zealand to a sideshow on Friday.

India ended Australia's 12-year reign as world champions with a five-wicket win in Ahmedabad and will face their neighbours on Wednesday in what will be Pakistan's first match on Indian soil since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

"India v Pakistan in semi-finals -- it doesn't get better. A World Cup hosted by the sub-continental nations and India and Pakistan making it to the semis," said India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

"There will be more pressure on the Indian side and it will be from outside. People will say 'win the semis, we don't care about the final'.

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said it will be "awesome" to take on India for a place in the final at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on April 2.

"There is no bigger rivalry in the game than that. We have not played each other in our own country in recent years," he said.

"So it should be very exciting. The two are cricket-loving countries."

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, who hit a century in Thursday's defeat, vowed to carry on as a player although the loss of the world title held since 1999 will only cast further doubts over his position of skipper.

"If I end up having made a hundred in my last World Cup game, then I guess I can be pretty happy at the end of the day," said Ponting, who has been in charge since 2002.

India's demanding media lapped up their team's victory and eagerly anticipated the visit of Pakistan.

"Bring on Pakistan" screamed the front-page headline in the Mail Today.

The Times of India said the match-up against Pakistan should have all the trappings of a blockbuster.

"It's a match fans, organisers and advertisers have been fantasising about, and the fact that it will be Pakistan's first on Indian soil since 26/11 (the 2008 Mumbai attacks) lends an extra edge, if any was needed."

India has accused Pakistan of failing to crack down sufficiently on militant groups on its territory, including those which New Delhi blames for the Mumbai attacks which claimed 166 lives.

In the fuss over India's meeting with Pakistan, Friday's last-eight duel between South Africa and New Zealand in Dhaka has been reduced to a footnote.

Former pace spearhead Allan Donald will help to plot the Proteas downfall as New Zealand's bowling coach.

Donald reminded his former team that New Zealand have won three of their five World Cup meetings against them, including a five-wicket success in the Super Eights round of the 2007 edition.

"We are confident we can beat South Africa and I know most of our players are delighted that we are playing against them in the quarter-final," Donald said.

South Africa go into the quarter-final as Group B winners with five victories in six matches, while New Zealand finished fourth in Group A with four wins.

But their reputation for cracking under pressure continues to plague them, a factor which Donald knows all about.

He was involved in a disastrous run-out with Lance Kluesner in the 1999 World Cup semi-final when South Africa needed just one run to win, allowing Australia to tie the game and make final on superior run-rate.

The Proteas have crashed out three times in World Cup semi-finals, once in the quarter-final and another time in the first round.

The six-run loss to England in this tournament, chasing a modest 172, was another example of South Africa's brain freeze, even though the demons were exorcised by surpassing India's 296 with three wickets in hand.