World Cup 2015: Winning is contagious to both India and Australia

By Dileep Premchandran

On the eve of a big match, two opponents are unlikely to arrive at any sort of consensus. They will accentuate their strengths, downplay their weaknesses, and generally talk a good game.

The one thing Michael Clarke and Rohit Sharma, who addressed the media on the eve of the second semifinal, in Sydney on Thursday were in agreement on was the value of experience in a match of this magnitude.

Eight of the Indians expected to start tomorrow were part of the Champions Trophy win in England in 2013. Three of them – MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli – also played in the 2011 World Cup final. For Australia, Shane Watson and Michael Clarke played in the 2007 final, while Watson and Mitchell Johnson were in the XI that won the Champions Trophy in 2009. “I think experience in big games makes a difference,” said Clarke. “In any sport, the best balanced team has a mixture of that. It has the experience, but it also has youth, and I’m really confident that our squad has that.

“You have some older players that have played in World Cups and had success, and you’ve got some youngsters with unbelievable talent, no fear at all, looking forward to what is thrown at them tomorrow in a semifinal of the World Cup.”

“We’ve all played big games,” said Rohit. “Those big matches bring the best out of everyone. “We know what it takes to come out a winner. Hopefully, we’ll have a good start tomorrow. That’s going to be very crucial, whether we bat or bowl. The biggest thing is to stay in the present, just enjoy the moment and focus on what we do.”

Clarke gave a resigned shrug when asked about the likely composition of the crowd, with Indian fans expected to greatly outnumber the home support.

“We’ve played in India a number of times and they out-support us there as well,” he said. “It’s a fantastic feeling to have the opportunity to play in your own backyard.

“There are not too many better grounds in the world than the Sydney Cricket Ground. It’s very special to every Australian team, to be fortunate enough to walk out on to the ground. We don’t need any more motivation. We know we’ve got the support of the Australian public.

We’ve felt it the whole tournament, and we’ll feel it again tomorrow whether it’s 30% of the fans here or 50%.

“Indian fans, in general, are wonderful supporters of the game. I think they want to see great cricket, and they want to see their team win. They respect good, entertaining cricket, and I really hope we can provide that tomorrow.”

“Anywhere we play, we’ve got a lot of supporters,” said Rohit. “Hopefully, tomorrow it will be more blue than yellow.”

Australia have never lost a World Cup semifinal. India have lost all of three games across the last five ICC tournaments, while winning 28. Something has to give at the SCG, and Clarke was firm in his opinion that actions, rather than words, would decide the outcome.

“There is always a lot of talk about,” he said when asked about the prospect of a war of words in the middle. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing about, there is going to be talk of an Australian team versus somebody. There is going to be sledging, there is going to be banter. It’s really important for us to focus on what’s important, and that is playing our best cricket. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.”

Even before the tournament began, Clarke was one of those that had suggested that India’s performances earlier in the summer would have absolutely no bearing on their World Cup campaign.

He has been proven right, with Thursday’s opponents having won seven straight going into the semifinal. And while he was surprised by quite how poor India’s Sydney record was, he wasn’t giving those numbers – one ODI win in 14, and one Test success in 11 – too much importance. “They’ve played so much cricket in Australia,” he said.

“They’ve worked out how to take wickets. They’ve worked out how to score runs, and they’ve shown that through this tournament. I think MS Dhoni deserves a lot of credit for the way he’s captained his team, especially in being able to turn things around after being defeated in the Test series and the tri-series.

- Wisden India