[1]Australia will head into their "mini-final" quarterfinal match against India with a "no-fear" attitude as the pressure of playing at home would be on Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men, feels coach Tim Nielsen.
Nielsen said they were hoping to meet India in the final of the World Cup but now that they are clashing with the co-hosts in the quarters, Australia would be treating the Ahmedabad game as a "mini-grand final".
"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," Nielsen said.
"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.
"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," he added.
India have not won against Australia in the World Cup since the 1987 edition. Even at home, the hosts do not have a very good record as out of 15 one-dayers at home in the last five years, Australia have won nine.
In the World Cup so far, Australia and India have lost a game each in the group stage.
On Thursday both the teams would meet at Motera and Nielsen feels the pressure of playing at home could get to India.
"It's (playing at home) a huge factor for them. There's some pressure there and if we can start the game well and may be quieten the crowd that will play on the mind of the Indian team," said Nielsen, remembering the pressure Australia faced when they played the World Cup at home in 1992.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/coachjpg-720