The World Cup final between India and Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium is set to be a packed affair with more than one lakh spectators expected in the stands. Safe to say, the support is going to be very one-sided, much like it has been for every India fixture this World Cup. The visiting teams expect no different when they tour this part of the world but entire Narendra Modi Stadium cheering for one team can definitely get intimidating.
Just like it was during India vs Pakistan contest where the boos for Pakistan started from the toss and went on till the time match got over. There were hardly any green shirts in the stands on October 14 and blue is going to be the dominating hue on November 19 too. The number of Australian supporters will definitely be higher than the ones for Pakistan, but by no means they are going to change the partisan support.
Skipper Pat Cummins is aware that the crowd is going to be “very one-sided” and says the Aussies will put their best foot word to make them go silent. For them, it’s about embracing every part of it and not get overwhelmed by the numbers.
“I think you’ve got to embrace it. The crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided but it’s also in sport there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow. Yeah, you’ve just got to embrace every part of it, every part of a final even you know in the lead-up there’s going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed. You got to be up for it, you got to love it and just know whatever happens it’s fine but you just want to finish the day with no regrets,” says Cummins at pre-match conference.
Australia have played a lot of cricket in India this year – Border Gavaskar Trophy, ODI series, plenty of players in the IPL and now the World Cup – and the noise is not going to be something new for them. Cummins agrees that the scale is going to be “bigger than we would have experienced before” but not something “totally foreign”.
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“We play over here in India a lot so the noise is not something new – yeah, I think on this scale it’s probably bigger than we would have experienced before but it’s not something totally foreign to what we’ve had before. Everyone deals with it slightly differently you see Davey [Warner] probably dancing and winning the crowd over other guys just staying in their own bubble – yeah it should be good,” says Cummins.
Australia are ODI World Cup beasts with five titles in their cabinet, India have won two and have been unbeaten this edition. It wasn’t an ideal start for Australia this year but they have bounced back in fine fashion and find themselves in another final. In what promises to be a mouth-watering contest, Cummins downplays the “favourites” talk, says it will be an even contest but adds that there are at least a dozen players in the squad who have won a World Cup.
“I think it’s going to be an even match. I think you can make a case for either side. The good thing is I think we’ve got six or seven guys that won it in 2015 so we know that feeling. Even more of the guys that were there in the T20 World Cup, different format, but pretty much everyone, well at least a dozen of the 15, have won a World Cup and know what it takes and know that feeling and won’t be afraid to go out there and be brave and take the game on,” says Cummins.
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