Will it turn out to be ‘Mission Possible’ for India?

By Dileep Premachandran in Sydney/theguardian.comIn Enter the Dragon, a Bruce Lee movie that still enjoys cult status 42 years after its hero died, Jim Kelly’s character, Williams, is told by Mr Han, the bad guy, that it is defeat that he must learn to prepare for. “When it comes, I won’t even notice,” he replies. “I’ll be too busy looking good!”There were shades of that attitude in the way Rohit Sharma answered media queries before the semi-final against Australia in Sydney. Both cricketing logic and statistics suggest that India are rank outsiders, yet you wouldn’t have thought it looking at Rohit, who treated most inquiries as though they were half-volleys to caress through the covers.“We are here on a mission—and the mission is to win the World Cup,” he said. “When we finished the tri-series (they didn’t win a game against England or Australia), none of the guys thought about going back.“We just wanted to create history here. It’s been tough but if you look at the way the last one-and-a-half months have gone, it’s been really good. We have to make the last four months we have spent here rewarding by winning the semi-final and the final.”Talk of India being favourites, no matter how dry the pitch might be, borders on the insane. In 14 ODIs against Australia at the SCG, going back to 1980, India have won precisely once. The man who scored a century in that March 2008 game retired from ODIs more than two years ago. Sachin Tendulkar had to wait until his last World Cup appearance in 2011 to get a winner’s medal. MS Dhoni, who has succeeded him as the team’s eminence grise, will hope that his final World Cup campaign ends in the trophy being retained.Much of the confidence that India take into the game stems from Dhoni’s captaincy. His Test leadership may often have been reactive and uninspired but in coloured clothes, Dhoni has been a different beast. He may not go to the same aggressive lengths as Brendon McCullum or try the sort of unorthodox fields that Michael Clarke has a penchant for but a combination of gut feel and street smarts has given Dhoni an unprecedented treble of World Twenty20 (2007), World Cup (2011) and Champions Trophy (2013).Australia may lead 67-40 in the historical rivalry but it is 13-16 under Dhoni’s watch. This decade, the two teams are tied at 6-6. Since winning the Champions Trophy in 2009, Australia have exited a World Cup at the quarter-final stage (2011) and been eliminated in the group stages of the Champions Trophy (2013).India have won both and the XI that starts against Australia will contain eight of those that defeated England at Edgbaston nearly two years ago.The similarities with Edgbaston do not end there. That evening, after being edged out in a 20-overs-a-side game, there was disbelief in Alastair Cook’s voice at the level of support that India had enjoyed.In Sydney, Australia will be the home side that feels like an away one, with the many stands likely to be awash in India blue. “Indian fans, in general, are wonderful supporters of the game,” said Clarke, trying to dig deep for a positive. “I think they want to see great cricket and they want to see their team win. They respect good, entertaining cricket and I really hope we can provide that.”As impressive as India’s bowlers have been, knocking over the opposition seven straight times, the key to this match will lie with their top three.In his last outings against Australia, during the tri-series, Rohit stroked 138 off 139 balls at the MCG. Shikhar Dhawan already has two hundreds in the World Cup, while Virat Kohli, who started off with a century against Pakistan, has not really approached top gear thereafter.Kevin Pietersen has already been on air in Australia, warning them of how his “buddy”, Kohli, is “really up for Thursday”. That isn’t really news, though. The bigger the occasion and the grander the stage, the more likely Kohli is to excel. In the euphoria over Dhoni’s unbeaten 91 in the last World Cup final, Kohli’s vital 35 and 83-run partnership with Gautam Gambhir was largely overlooked. In the Champions Trophy final, with England’s bowlers rampant, he made 43 off 34 balls to give the bowlers something to defend.Australia will try to get under his skin, just as India will do their best to irk David Warner and Shane Watson. In the context of a match that is likely to see more of a nasty edge than the New Zealand-South Africa game, Dhoni’s sense of calm could be crucial. Clarke spoke of how it’s about what you do and not what you say but he is an emotional man. Dhoni is Mr Inscrutable. As Rohit said, he and his team “know what it takes to come out a winner”.In the movie, Williams is bludgeoned to death and strung up on a hook. At a ground where they have had next to no joy, India will hope that their confidence isn’t as misplaced as his.Indian captain MS Dhoni will hope to retain the trophy in his final World Cup campaign.