SA shock Aus, India-NZ semifinal tomorrow

Rohit Mahajan 
AT THE WORLD CUP 

Manchester, July 7

Last night, the train from Leeds to Birmingham was rocked by sudden whoops of joy. No, it wasn’t the already-drunk, mostly-White Saturday night revellers on way to a state of higher intoxication; the whoops of joy came from the Indians in the train, watching the cricket on their smartphones, when they celebrated South Africa’s win over Australia in the final match of the World Cup’s round-robin stage.

South Africa’s victory, the first in the World Cup since 1992, has significant implications for India — it sent Australia down to second position on the points table, putting India on top. India, thus, avoid home favourites England in the semifinals at Birmingham — where, significantly, England beat them in their league stage match on June 30.

Instead, India would play New Zealand, fourth on the points table, in the first semifinal in Manchester on Tuesday. England are on a roll, having won their last two matches, including a hammering of India. New Zealand have lost their last three matches. Australia play England for a place in the final on Thursday. 

After his fifth century in this tournament took India to an easy win over Sri Lanka at Leeds, Rohit Sharma had said that India did not care about who they’d play in the semifinals. “We’re not thinking about that,” he said. Captain Virat Kohli said the same thing: “For us, the opposition never matters. If we don’t play well, anyone can beat us, and if we play well, we can beat anyone.”

But South Africa captain Faf du Plessis believes that his team did India a favour by beating Australia. “I think India would be very happy we won, looking at New Zealand’s form in the last three games… It’s dipping a little bit,” he said. “I’ll probably say India vs England.”

When Yuvraj lifted Rohit 

• Rohit Sharma, having scored record five hundreds in a single edition of World Cup, wasn’t among the runs during Mumbai Indians’ victorious IPL campaign. He spoke about his apprehensions to Yuvraj Singh, man of the tournament during India’s successful 2011 WC campaign.

• “I was not getting big runs (during IPL)… so during IPL, we were having a good chat around the game basically. He (Yuvraj) was in a similar phase in 2011 before the World Cup. So he said when it matters, you will do it. I guess probably he was talking about the WC,” said Rohit after win over Sri Lanka. PTI