his team got for the match against Sri Lanka and predicted a high-scoring encounter.
“I think the pitch will be very similar to the one we used in the game against Sri Lanka when almost 700 runs were scored, so I think this will be another high-scoring affair,” Lehmann wrote on the official Cricket Australia website www.cricket.com.au.
“But finals seem to have a way of working out differently sometimes. So even if the pitch is a belter, you have to do the basics well enough to produce a high score. And then bowl well enough to defend it.”
Lehmann felt that constant meetings with India over the summer would “add an extra element to what already looms as an enthralling contest.”
“India are really starting to gain some confidence on the back of some good performances since the tournament began, but we know them inside out — just as they do us.
“Everyone in the Australia squad is excited that we’ve reached the final week of the World Cup and are now within striking distance of a goal that we set ourselves more than a year ago.”
With organisers estimating that 70 percent of the tickets have been picked up by Indian fans, Australia would feel as if they were playing an away game on their own soil.
India will once again bank on a sound start from openers Shikhar Dhawan, who has 367 runs in the tournament with two centuries, and Rohit Sharma, who hit 137 against Bangladesh.
But it will be Virat Kohli the Australians will be wary of after the elegant right-hander hit four centuries in the preceding four-Test series, including 147 and 46 at the SCG.
Kohli’s form dipped after a match-winning century against Pakistan, but Dhoni was confident of his star batsman coming good when it mattered.
“A big one is just around the corner because big players always score in big games,” Dhoni said of Kohli.
India’s pace trio of Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma have claimed 42 wickets between them, but it will be the off-spin of Ravichandran Ashwin that Dhoni will turn to if the pitch takes turn. The winner of Thursday’s match will face New Zealand in the final in Melbourne on Sunday.