Aussies eye last eight

NEW DELHI, Mar 13 (AFP): India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni accused his team of World Cup showboating after their Nagpur nightmare while New Zealand and Australia were Sunday poised to reach the quarter-finals. India are still on course to make the last eight but their three-wicket defeat to South Africa sparked accusations from Dhoni that players were more interested in pleasing the crowd than safeguarding team interests. "In the batting powerplay, it's important that you don't play for the crowd, but for your country," said Dhoni. India lost four wickets, including those of Sachin Tendulkar (111) and Gautam Gambhir (69) for 30 runs during the batting powerplay, which eventually restricted their total to 296. Their last nine wickets went for just 29 runs. "Spectators love to see fours and sixes, but when you lose two-three wickets, you need to change your approach. When you have 270-280 runs on the board, batsmen want to play big shots," said Dhoni. "You need to curb your thinking. Different people have different roles and responsibilities." India's demanding media also laid into their team. "India choke in cliffhanger" was the Hindustan Times front page headline, the demise of the national cricket team relegating even Japan's tsunami down page. The Mail Today said: "The choke's on Team India." The tag of 'chokers' has traditionally been reserved for South Africa for their big time collapses under pressure, particularly last weekend's embarrassing failure to chase down 172 to beat England in Chennai.