Over the past few days, there was an appreciable amount of
anxiety as to who India would encounter in the quarterfinals of the World Cup,
with all possible scenarios coming through, three opponents in question -
Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Now, it's formal - Australia at Ahmedabad
on Thursday. Wellofcourse, it was important for the Indian lads to sign-off the
preliminary group stages by seeing off the West Indies at Chennai, but somehow
the rather disturbing takeaway from the game was it typified India's campaign
in the tournament so far - unconvincing but mighty effective. Improvement from
the previous excursions were scarce, with familiar deficiencies popping out
time and again, which still is a sign of concern, given the nature of the
format they await next - a knockout. Is Australia a good deal, some of you
might ask? I say, a great bargain and a fantastic opportunity to assert their
title credentials by knocking the defending champions out. And, going with the
popular