From Motera to Mohali, and then Mumbai?

If you thought a bleeding Brett Lee summed up intensity on the cricket field, wait till Team India take on Pakistan in the semifinal at Mohali.

It's the match that fans, organizers and advertisers have been fantasizing about, and the fact that it will be Pakistan's first match on Indian soil since 26/11 lends an extra edge, if any was needed.

The bad news first: Pakistan are on a dream run. They thrive on confidence and momentum, and given current form look hard to beat. Besides, India have played Pakistan in ODIs twice at this venue in the past, in 1999 and 2007, and lost on both occasions.

But this is the World Cup, where India have never lost to Pakistan. Not once, over four pulsating encounters.

Interestingly, Australian captain Ricky Ponting, whose side lost to both the teams, backed India to beat Pakistan.

Imran Khan, the only Pakistani captain to lift the Cup, however believes the pressure of playing Pakistan at home may prove too much for India.

At first glance, it seems to be Pakistan's bowling vs India's batting. But ultimately, it could be about who wins the battle of nerves. Both sides are battle-hardened, and unlikely to blink first.

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Ponting predicts India will beat Pakistan in the semifinals

AHMEDABAD: Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Thursday predicted that India would beat Pakistan in the World Cup semifinal and Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men are the strong favourites to win the coveted title after a gap of 28 years.

"India played well as a team today and deserved victory. Today we were not good enough (to win). Going forward they will be pretty hard to beat. They will beat Pakistan in the semifinal and go on to win the World Cup now," Ponting said at the post-match press conference after Australia were knocked out of the World Cup by India.

"India have a very good batting line-up. We played very competitive cricket tonight but I'm disappointed with the two successive losses (against Pakistan in their last league game and today against India)," he said after his side's five-wicket loss in a high-octane World Cup quarterfinal.

He said he would not be playing in the next World Cup but ruled out quitting one-day cricket.

"I am not quitting one-day cricket but this is probably my last World Cup game. I will be happy to look back after retirement that I made a century in my last innings in the World Cup," Ponting said

He also said that the talk of the end of an era in Australian cricket was misplaced.

"It's a bit premature to say it was the end of an era for Australian cricket, it was a pretty good game tonight. I do not think we were far away from winning the game against a very good Indian team on their home soil. I think it's a bit too early to say it's the end of an era," said Ponting.

Ponting said his side had the chances to win the game and they were devastated by the loss.

"We had great expectations from the game. We were a well organized group. We are devastated. We found it difficult to get momentum. Not performing at critical moments cost us the game. We did not grab our opportunities," he said.

"We were 15 to 20 runs short with the bat. 250-260 was a good total but we lost wickets at bad time and never got the momentum going. We did not execute the plans properly," said the 36-year-old Tasmanian who scored a superb 104 after having struggled in the earlier part of the tournament.

The Australian captain felt the schedule of the tournament could have been spread out better but said that that cannot be an excuse for his side's crashing out in the quarterfinals.

"The schedule did not help us. But that cannot be put as an excuse for the loss. Over the last ten days my team has played four games. It would have been nice to have them (games) evenly spread out," he said.

He sympathised with his key fast bowler Brett Lee who had made a great effort to get back into the team after a 14-month injury lay-off.

"Brett has given a lot for Australian cricket during his entire career and at times coming back after big injuries. He will be shattered as he has worked very hard to get here," he said.

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Ind vs Aus: Yuvraj, Sachin, Raina help Men in Blue avenge 2003 humiliation

AHMEDABAD: It was billed as the blockbuster and the quarterfinal, the second of the 2011 Cricket World Cup at the Sardar Patel Stadium at Motera on Thursday lived up to the expectations.

India survived a Ricky Ponting masterclass (104, 118 balls, 7x4, 1 x6) and some tense moments to beat four-time World Champions Australia by five wickets and 14 balls to spare to set up a potentially explosive clash with arch rivals Pakistan in Mohali on March 30.

The hosts rose to the occasion in style, first with a superb bowling and fielding effort, then the great master Sachin Tendulkar set the stage alight with glorious strokeplay to put the side on cruise mode before some quintessential Indian harakiri.

The Aussies sensing a chance changed colours, bowled with venom, sledged hard and even bled - Brett Lee getting a cut under his eye while fielding. They did it all but couldn't stop India from progressing.

There were many heroes for India as they set about their chase of 261, but Yuvraj Singh, yet again, emerged as the knight in shining armour coming up with a match-winning knock of unbeaten 57 runs besides picking up two wickets earlier. The effort earned the southpaw his fourth Man-of-the-match award in this World Cup.

Also rising to the challenge was young Suresh Raina with a gutsy unbeaten 34. Yuvraj and Raina realized 74 runs from 61 balls just when the Aussies had turned on the screws.

There was some intense drama before though courtesy a horrible mix-up between Gautam Gambhir (50; 64b, 7x4) and Yuvraj (their third in the span of five minutes) resulting in the run out of Gambhir. Yuvraj edged David Hussey to Cameron White at slip and even before Yuvraj could realize, Gambhir had dashed towards him from the non-striker's end and it was a point of no return.

Five overs earlier, Virat Kohli swatted a full toss straight down the throat of Michael Clarke at mid-wicket.

Skipper MS Dhoni cracked a thundering boundary, but another attempt off Lee saw Dhoni cut the bowler straight to Michael Clarke at point. The Indians had slid to 187 for 5 in 37.3 overs and seemed to be spoiling their own party till Yuvraj and Raina came into their own.

Of course, Tendulkar (53; 68b, 7x4) was on a different planet altogether as he caressed, punched, pulled, drove and also played the upper cut, the way only he can to raise hopes of the ton of tons.

IOC issues a warning

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has cautioned the Union Sports Minister that the proposed sports legislation could threaten India's participation in international events, especially the Olympic qualifiers and Olympic Games, if stipulations being imposed on the National Olympic Committee and National Sports Federations (NSFs) were not modified so as to respect the autonomy of the Olympic Movement.

In a letter to Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge), Ajay Maken, on Tuesday, the NOC Relations Director of the IOC, Pere Miro, stated that it was not the IOC's intention to interfere directly in the process of legislation formulation by the Government of India.

However, he pointed out, organisations of the Olympic Movement in India — the NOC and National Federations in particular — would be “directly impacted and affected by this new sports legislation.”

Miro stated that the internal operations (including the composition of the bodies, decision-making mechanisms, holding of meetings, election process, age limit, if any, number of terms for the elected office-bearers, mechanisms for resolving disputes etc.) should come under the jurisdiction of the sports organisations.