World Cup: India vs Australia is mini-final, mega contest

It is cricket’s equivalent of Brazil vs Germany or Italy vs Argentina in a football World Cup — a high voltage contest. India vs Australia is the match of the quarterfinals, nay match of the championship. Not for nothing Tim Nielsen says it is a mini-final.

So evenly are the teams stacked up, separating them will be exercising in futility. A shot, a throw, a wide or a dot ball can decide the outcome of the contest. “We’ll have to be on our toes for 100 overs,” said Ricky Ponting. MS Dhoni concurred, stating that his side cannot afford a blink. One moment of lapse can change game on its axis. A humdinger is on the cards at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera on Thursday.

On the eve of the game, the teams’ approach was that of cultivated pragmatism than overt show of bravado. The fear of failure was all too evident among the captains as was the realisation of magnitude of the contest and enormity of the job at hand. There were no mind games nor high decibel rhetoric. ‘We want our cricket to do the talking’ was the general refrain of Dhoni and Ponting.

Coming into the match, neither side has exactly justified their billing — the build-up has not been the way they would have expected. The top two one-day teams in the world have been rather lacklustre in the group stage, having managed only one win each over a major team. Australia, in particular, have been scrappy, with Ponting providing fodder for his critics with a string of poor scores. The team has not even shown the typical aggression it is known for. This is very unlike an Australian team.

“We’ll play the Australian way and let our cricket do all the talking,” said Ponting with more hope than conviction. Dhoni was cautiously optimistic that his batsmen will be able to curb their avarice and prevent another meltdown in the batting powerplay.

“We’ll not try to go for the broke,” said the India skipper. “We’ll keep smaller targets in mind. Controlling emotions will be a big factor, but I think most of the Indian cricketers are good at it. We win some and we lose some.”

One of the big sideshow of the second quarterfinal will be the appearance of Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar in a World Cup game. One of them will have played his last game in the World Cup by Thursday night. Ponting said the contest is not about two individuals but about two teams and then hastened to add that 100 international centuries will be an incredible effort. “We will make sure that he doesn’t get it tomorrow,” the Australia skipper said.

Whether or not Tendulkar gets 100th century, India will be looking for a substantial contribution from the Little Master, particularly because of the uncertainty over the availability of Virender Sehwag for the game. A lot will depend on how India start — in both batting and bowling — which means performance of Sehwag (if he is fit) and Tendulkar will be crucial to the team’s chances.

Australians have said that they have plans in place for the key Indian batsmen and bowlers. A lot will depend on how these players, particularly the openers, will handle the barrage of short balls from Brett Lee & Co. India, sure, are not a one or a two-batsman team but Dhoni will need his premier batters to get going. When Lionel Messi fires, Argentina’s chances of winning becomes that much easier.