There was something reassuring about the impromptu, entirely affectionate flashmob that greeted New Zealand’s players as they arrived back at the Taj Mahal Tower on the Mumbai dock-front on Tuesday night after a final pre-match training session at the Wankhede stadium.
The team hotel is just across from the Gateway of India monument, from where the spectacle of an ICC-branded bus pulling up seemed to inspire a mass change of heart over what constitutes a worthwhile day of sightseeing, hundreds of people catapulting the fences, steaming across the four-lane road and forming a cheering press – the appearance of Trent Boult caused an outbreak of Beatlemania-style squeals – held back at one end by a commendably patient duo of stick-wielding policemen.
It was at least confirmation that New Zealand are definitely in the country, an actual functioning elite national team about to play a third consecutive World Cup semi-final, as opposed to just a necessary piece of staging, another prop in India’s march towards Indian glory in this, the World Cup of India.
Have any host nation ever been such powerful favourites to progress at the sharp end of an International Cricket Council tournament? Or indeed, required to operate under such a concerted weight of brain-mangling pressure (answer: no)? At which point things start to get interesting.
“India Seek a Perfect 11” was the headline in the Times of India on Tuesday. And why not, with nine wins already stashed away at this World Cup? Except of course without meaning to be a drag, they haven’t actually got to 10 yet.
An accompanying preview of all four semi-final teams listed India’s weaknesses as “there aren’t any”. Even Rohit Sharma, an entirely reasonable captain and well aware of the Black Caps’ capacities, suffered a mild slip of the tongue in his press conference, promising he would only dwell on his team’s achievements “after the 19th of November”, which is, of course the hurdle after the current hurdle.
There is plenty of hard sporting logic in maintaining such reserves of confidence. India have been by some distance the best team at this World Cup, so dominant in their victories that the internal battle over who wins India’s own fielder-of-the-match trophy has become a point of national interest.
This is roll-call of hyper-skilled cricketers, with roles clearly defined and a bowling attack that has no weaknesses, just super-strengths. The Wankhede is expected to be seamer-friendly on Wednesday. In Mohammed Shami (16 wickets at 9.56) and Jasprit Bumrah (17 at 15.64) India have a pair of fast bowlers operating with a kind of light around them, their combined 20-over contributions at this tournament producing an average opposition return of 84 for seven.
Scroll back and India won the past four meetings of these teams in one-day internationals. Two years ago New Zealand were dismissed for 62 in a Test at the Wankhede, left pinned and wriggling on the wall by India’s spinners. Hard sporting logic then. But tunnel vision can serve its own purpose, too.
How else to respond to an environment of such visceral expectation, the kind of bubble where it seemed the most natural thing this week for the team sponsors Indusind Bank to pen an open good-luck poem to the men “fighting in the sacred blue” on behalf of “1.43 billion hearts”, with the signoff: “Your biggest fans, All of India.” So. No pressure then.
India (likely): Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill ,Virat Kohl, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahu, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
New Zealand (likely): Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham , Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult.
And this, pressure, is basically the story of India’s World Cup from here, as it was the main theme of Sharma’s pre-match appearance at the Wankhede. “There is always pressure. If you are an Indian cricketer there is always pressure,” he shrugged, in response to the obvious questions. “You know when you come on the ground, there will be pressure, pressure of performance, pressure of winning.”
Set against this New Zealand’s one real trump card is being New Zealand, a team operating in an alternate atmosphere of anti-gravity. Two hours earlier Kane Williamson had said things such as “We’re just looking forward to tomorrow”, speaking with such studied gee-whiz guilelessness it almost felt like a vicious and studied assault.
Did he see this is as “the mother of all battles” after an exciting group-stage clash in Dharamsala? “Yeah, I mean that was a great game.” How about the response to this World Cup? Could it resuscitate the entire format? “Has it been a good response or a bad one? I’m not exactly aware.”
New Zealand have strengths of their own. Runs and wickets have been shared around. Williamson himself has returned, got injured again and returned again without missing a step. A general consensus is the toss may be key, with talk of a golden hour just as the lights come on at the start of the second innings.
Sharma played this down, as he must, given he’s going to be out there flipping the coin. But Boult in particular has a way of zipping the white ball around, seeking out stumps and pads and toes in the gloaming.
India’s middle-lower order, built to attack, might be a tender spot if the top can be lopped off. Beyond that, and given their power as a unit, there is a sense even at this stage that India are basically playing India here, for the benefit of India, and under the eyes of India.
