Believe in yourself: Class of ’83 to Team India

On Sunday, meanwhile, India will face a team with the winningest streak in the one-day game (16 matches) and the only team with a perfect record in this world cup.

So what advice will the alumni give to the present batch?

‘‘They should forget what happened in the earlier game against the Aussies’’, says Yashpal Sharma. ‘‘They should cash in on their plus points and not think negative. They should fight for the top place.’’

The pressure, he says, will be on the Australians, who will also be aware that the Indians have shown a much improved performance since losing to them at Centurion. ‘‘The body language of the Indian team says it all. They are playing as a well-knit unit’’, he says.

Yashpal cautions against giving in to popular wisdom and changing the playing eleven. ‘There’s no need to change for the sake of a change, if the skipper feels that the same players can deliver the goods in the final.’’

‘‘There’s no such thing as a favourite in a final’’, says Madan Lal. ‘‘These things don’t matter. The Aussies are aware that the Indians will be a dangerous team now and will be quite different from what they faced earlier. The team that plays true to its potential and can withstand the pressure will win.’’

He does concede, though, that in 1983 India were under no pressure to win; just reaching the final was an achievement, which probably helped. ‘‘In the team meeting, we only told each other that having come so far, we should give it a try and hope for the best. Of course, having beaten them once (in the group phase) had given us confidence that we could do it and that the West Indies were not invincible.’’

Even so, those initial flutters are hard to suppress. Krishnamachari Srikkanth faced the first ball of the final against the West Indies and he is adamant there was pressure. ‘‘It was the biggest game of our lives so the jitters were there. But there was also the honour of playing for the country and stakes in just one game,’’ he says.

So how did he deal with this pressure and hit the highest score in the match? ‘‘See, the pressure is upto the point when one is outside the stadium. After the first ball is bowled and one is the middle everything vanishes,’’ he says. Simple as that.

And pressure, he feels, shouldn’t matter to the present team. ‘‘Apart from talent, they have so much experience. So I don’t think these guys will have any problem coping with the pressure,’’ he says.

Swashbuckling all-rounder Sandeep Patil, who had a big role to play in the semi-final at the time, agrees that the pressure is there.

‘‘I distinctly remember the tension I felt on the night before the match. Even when I reached the ground seeing the aura around Lord’s I felt intimidated. But honestly when the game starts these things don’t matter,’’ he said.