<p>Ahmedabad: Cricket in Australia is big, but it isn’t 130,000 people at a single stadium for a single match big. Not even close.</p>.<p>Coming from a land where Australian rules football worms in the collective psyche more than cricket does, it can be quite the culture shock for those from Down Under to understand the hype around cricket in India. </p>.<p>Australian cricket teams of yore have embraced it over the years, and the Indian Premier League has helped them feel less claustrophobic, but come Sunday, all those years of coping will be tested for their biggest test awaits. </p>.Australians appear jittery over pitch behaviour, Cummins clicks photos of match strip.<p>While Pat Cummins and Co will face eleven Indians on the field for a chance at picking up their sixth World Cup title, it will feel like they’re up against much, much more than that. </p>.<p>The Narendra Modi stadium could be the theatre of dreams as quickly as it can become the background to a cold-sweat nightmare. Cummins wasn’t too fazed on the eve of the match, though. </p>.<p>“It’s probably bigger than we would have experienced before but you’ve got to embrace it. The crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided but it’s also in sport there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow,” said the skipper on Saturday. </p>.<p>“You’ve just got to embrace every part of it, every part of a final even you know in the lead-up there’s going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed. 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.”</p>.<p>That last sentence summarises Cummins’ ideology and portrays Australia’s fight-or-flight response to their precarious World Cup. Besides losing the first two games, they have also had their legs caught in the wheel a number of times, but they have somehow found a way to make it to their eighth final. </p>.<p>“Absolutely, yeah,” admitted Cummins when asked if he thought for a moment that they would not make it this far. “The proposition at that stage was basically we had to be flawless to make it through to the semis. And fortunately, we were. But yeah, absolutely, we knew we came up against two very good sides to start off with, but we were off the pace so we knew that we had to change pretty drastically and yeah, glad we did.”</p>.<p>Change, they did, but that doesn’t alter the fact that they are still underdogs in this contest. Right? </p>.<p>“Don’t know about that,” said Cummins. “It’s going to be an even match. I think you can make a case for either side. The good thing is I think we’ve got six or seven guys that won it in 2015 so we know that feeling. Even more of the guys that were there in the T20 World Cup, different format, but pretty much everyone, well at least a dozen of the 15, have won a World Cup and know what it takes and know that feeling and won’t be afraid to go out there and be brave and take the game on.”</p>
<p>Ahmedabad: Cricket in Australia is big, but it isn’t 130,000 people at a single stadium for a single match big. Not even close.</p>.<p>Coming from a land where Australian rules football worms in the collective psyche more than cricket does, it can be quite the culture shock for those from Down Under to understand the hype around cricket in India. </p>.<p>Australian cricket teams of yore have embraced it over the years, and the Indian Premier League has helped them feel less claustrophobic, but come Sunday, all those years of coping will be tested for their biggest test awaits. </p>.Australians appear jittery over pitch behaviour, Cummins clicks photos of match strip.<p>While Pat Cummins and Co will face eleven Indians on the field for a chance at picking up their sixth World Cup title, it will feel like they’re up against much, much more than that. </p>.<p>The Narendra Modi stadium could be the theatre of dreams as quickly as it can become the background to a cold-sweat nightmare. Cummins wasn’t too fazed on the eve of the match, though. </p>.<p>“It’s probably bigger than we would have experienced before but you’ve got to embrace it. The crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided but it’s also in sport there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow,” said the skipper on Saturday. </p>.<p>“You’ve just got to embrace every part of it, every part of a final even you know in the lead-up there’s going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed. 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.”</p>.<p>That last sentence summarises Cummins’ ideology and portrays Australia’s fight-or-flight response to their precarious World Cup. Besides losing the first two games, they have also had their legs caught in the wheel a number of times, but they have somehow found a way to make it to their eighth final. </p>.<p>“Absolutely, yeah,” admitted Cummins when asked if he thought for a moment that they would not make it this far. “The proposition at that stage was basically we had to be flawless to make it through to the semis. And fortunately, we were. But yeah, absolutely, we knew we came up against two very good sides to start off with, but we were off the pace so we knew that we had to change pretty drastically and yeah, glad we did.”</p>.<p>Change, they did, but that doesn’t alter the fact that they are still underdogs in this contest. Right? </p>.<p>“Don’t know about that,” said Cummins. “It’s going to be an even match. I think you can make a case for either side. The good thing is I think we’ve got six or seven guys that won it in 2015 so we know that feeling. Even more of the guys that were there in the T20 World Cup, different format, but pretty much everyone, well at least a dozen of the 15, have won a World Cup and know what it takes and know that feeling and won’t be afraid to go out there and be brave and take the game on.”</p>