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MUMBAI - A popular Indian astrology website is predicting New Zealand will reach the semifinals of the cricket World Cup.
Cricket-crazy Indian fans are flocking to a popular Indian astrology website, www.ganeshaspeaks.com, which offers in-depth details on planetary positions on match days and the changing biorhythm circles of each player.
The website said astrological aspects favoured South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand contesting three of the four semifinal places with Australia, Sri Lanka and India battling for the fourth place.
The website is named after the elephant-headed Hindu God, Lord Ganesha.
The cricket-frenzy in the country, home to around 1.1 billion people, has been fuelled by a multitude of television channels and media houses who are tracking the action minute by minute.
India, 1983 winners, begin their campaign on Saturday with a Group B match against Bangladesh.
Astrologers, numerologists and tarot card readers are being asked to predict the winner of the World Cup that opened this week, while this website attempts the same through a multi-dimensional analysis.
"Ganesha feels that we will have a new world champion this time," was the website's forecast.
"If Australia reaches the semifinal as a second or third team they may have better chances to make it to the final," it said of the world champions, who are aiming to become the first team to win a hat-trick of World Cup titles.
"(But) if Australia reaches the final they might not be able to win."
Analysing the astrology profile, biorhythm report and element chart of each member of the 16 participating teams, the website predicted that India had an equal chance of qualifying for the fourth semifinal spot along with Australia and Sri Lanka.
"India's fate will heavily depend on the fourth game of the Super Eight matches.
"Toss will become very important and to chose batting/bowling will have strong impact over the game's outcome," said the website which also predicts outcomes of the English Premier League football.
- REUTERS