SYDNEY (Web Desk/Agencies) – India fans are likely to outnumber their Australian counterparts when the two teams clash in the World Cup semi-final in Sydney on Thursday – much to the annoyance of the home captain.
Australia skipper Michael Clarke and team-mate David Warner sent out identical tweets, saying: “I call on all Australian cricket lovers to paint the SCG gold on Thursday. We need your support. #goldout”
The hashtag, referring to the Australian team colours, has ironically caught the fancy of more Indian twitter users than Australian.
Organisers believe that 70 per cent of tickets at the sold-out 42,000-capacity Sydney Cricket Ground have been bought by India fans, threatening to create an environment reminiscent of the frenzied atmosphere of Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
If the pitch suits spinners, as has been the case at the SCG in the past, co-hosts Australia may well feel as though they have been kicked out of their own party.
Kartik Ayyalasomayajula, one of the founders of the Swami Army – India’s version of England’s Barmy Army supporters group – forecast the Australian team would be in for a hard time from fans on Thursday.
“It will be very loud, very intimidating,” Kartik told the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Kartik said those Australians who turned up at the SCG on Thursday would get an idea of what cricket means in South Asia.
On the other hand, former India fast-bowling coach Joe Dawes doubts whether India can replicate the devastating impact Wahab Riaz had when they play Australia in Thursday’s semi-final and believes they will be confronted with the psychological baggage of their winless summer against the co-hosts.
Riaz, 29, is still the talk of the World Cup despite Pakistan being on their way home, owing to a memorable spell in Adelaide that took care of Dave Warner and Michael Clarke and had Shane Watson almost doing the limbo as he reared away from the tournament’s most menacing short-pitched bowling to date.
The Indians will have noted the vulnerability of the Australian batsmen in their quarter-final but while their pacemen, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma, have improved out of sight after a dismal first two months in Australia in the summer they don’t have a Riaz clone in their line-up and as such are unlikely to be able to able to cause the mayhem the left-armer from Lahore wreaked with his angles last Friday night.
Shami has 17 wickets at an average of 13 in the World Cup to be third behind left-armers Trent Boult (New Zealand) and Mitchell Starc (Australia) on the wicket tally. After four months in the country, his success is an indication that India have finally found their range but after being unable to register a win against Australia throughout a Test series and tri-series campaign there are undeniable mental hurdles to overcome, according to Dawes.
