India match a mini-final for Australia, says coach

AHMEDABAD, (Reuters) – Australia are treating  Thursday’s World Cup quarter-final against India as a  “mini-grand final”, coach Tim Nielsen said on Tuesday.
“The adrenaline will certainly be flowing and playing in  front of their home crowd in Ahmedabad will be exciting and a  challenge for us. We’ve got no fear now; we know we’re in the  knockout stage,” Nielsen told reporters.
“It’s exciting…a mini-grand final in itself. If you came  here and thought, ‘What would be the best result? It would be  great to make the final against India’. Well, we’ve got our  final against India in the next few days.”

Tim Nielsen
Tim Nielsen

The 42-year old English-born coach said the home crowd would  add to the pressure on India.
“I’m sure if we’re on our game, they won’t necessarily be  looking forward to playing against us. That’s something in our  favour,” he said.
“It’s (playing at home) a huge factor for them. There’s some  pressure there and if we can start the game well and maybe  quieten the crowd that will play on the mind of the Indian team.
“The media and the public scrutiny will also be so great  that you’d expect India to have most of the pressure on them.”
Nielsen said Australia’s best chance of gaining an  upper-hand would be by making early inroads into the Indian  batting.
“The importance of a quarter-final and the stature of a  match will mean they are switched on,” he said.
“But if we can make some early inroads into their batting —  (Virender) Sehwag, (Sachin) Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and (Gautam)  Gambhir have played really well for them — we’d like to think  that would be a benefit for us.”

SUPPORT FOR PONTING
Senior Australia batsman Mike Hussey jumped to the support  of out-of-form captain Ricky Ponting and said he would prove his  mettle in Thursday’s quarter-final.
Ponting has now gone 17 ODI innings without hitting a  century and has not even hit a 50 since June last year.
The 3-1 Ashes drubbing at the hands of England and the end  of the 34-match World Cup winning streak against Pakistan on  Saturday have only compounded Ponting’s problems.
Accordingly the 36-year old, chasing a hat-trick of World  Cup titles as captain, faces his most challenging days as the  national skipper.
But Hussey is still ready to bet on his captain finding his  form soon.
“Ricky’s got our 100 percent support,” Hussey said.
“He’s such a class player. It’s amazing, it seems like he’s  been copping criticism over very minor things. Things have been  blown way out of proportion from our point of view.
“I’ve been watching Ricky in the nets and the way he has  been preparing.”
Hussey, who returned to the side after an operation on his  ruptured hamstring to replace injured paceman Doug Bollinger,  said he felt Thursday would be a big day for Ponting.
“It’s just amazing, sometimes, how champions just rise to  the occasion at the right time. Against India on Thursday in the  World Cup is one of those times where I think we’ll see the best  of Ricky Ponting,” he said.