Intensity peaks as rivals face off
Print Edition
SPARKS can be expected to fly when confident, well-balanced teams from cricketing superpowers Australia and India clash in a mouth-watering Cricket World Cup semifinal in Sydney today.
The match pits four-time champion Australia, the top-ranked team in one-dayers, against title holder India.
The winner will go on to face the other co-hosts New Zealand on Sunday in another of the great arenas of the game, Melbourne Cricket Ground.
While today’s clash at the Sydney Cricket Ground will have to go some way to match the tense climax of New Zealand’s victory over South Africa on Tuesday, Australia’s meetings with India are rarely dull.
If familiarity between the two sides has not quite bred contempt, the frequent heated exchanges in their clashes indicates at the very least a fierce competitiveness.
“The fact we’re playing India now is extremely special,” Australia captain Michael Clarke said. “I think you’ll see two teams at the top of their game wanting to play their best cricket, I’m really confident both teams will put on a great show.”
In the test arena at least, home advantage has been the decisive factor in their meetings in recent years. It has less of an impact in the one-day game and there is good reason for India to have some confidence in today’s clash.
Clarke admitted it was a “no brainer” that Indian fans would outnumber those of Australia, while the SCG has always offered something for the one area of the game where the visitors can be said to have a distinct edge, spin bowling.
Australia can look to its record of having lost just one of 14 one-dayers at the ground against India and to its utter dominance of their games since the tourists arrived Down Under last November.
India has been transformed since the start of the World Cup, however, with a newly potent bowling attack firing alongside its always fine batting to take it to the last four unbeaten.
That has given the side such confidence that batsman Rohit Sharma said it was irrelevant whether there was spin on offer at the SCG or not.
“If you look at the tournament, we’ve taken 70 wickets in seven games, distributed between the spinners and the fast bowlers. So it doesn’t matter how the wicket behaves. If it suits the fast bowlers or the spinners, we’ve got everything covered in those two areas.”
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