Cummins urges Australia to ’embrace’ India crowd challenge in World Cup final

AHMEDABAD – Australia captain Pat Cummins has urged his side to “embrace” the challenge of facing a hostile crowd when they play in-form hosts India in Sunday’s World Cup final in Ahmedabad.

A capacity crowd of around 130,000 is expected to roar on India.

The hosts are bidding for a third World Cup title and second on home soil after their 2011 triumph.

But five-time champions Australia are a team full of big-match performers who also know what it’s like to play in cricket-crazy India from their time in the Indian Premier League.

“I think you’ve got to embrace it, the crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided,” Cummins told a pre-match news conference on Saturday.

“But also in sport, there’s nothing more satisfying (as an opposition player) than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow.”

The 30-year-old fast bowler added: “You’ve just got to embrace every part of it, every part of a final — you know in the lead-up there’s going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed.

– ‘No regrets’ –

“You got to be up for it, you got to love it and just know whatever happens it’s fine but you just want to finish the day with no regrets,” Cummins said.

And while he accepted the dimensions of Sunday’s match would be different to any his side had experienced before, Cummins said: “We play over here in India a lot so the noise is not something new. 

“I think on this scale it’s probably bigger than we would have experienced before but it’s not something totally foreign to what we’ve had before.

“Everyone deals with it slightly differently — you see Davey (Warner) probably dancing and winning the crowd over, other guys just staying in their own bubble –- it should be good.”

India have been the form team of this World Cup, winning all 10 matches on their way to the final.

“It’s going to be awesome,” said Cummims. “They’ve been playing really well, undefeated this tournament. But we know at our best we can give them a good shake.”

– ‘Class Shami’ –

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