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Nagpur: India will be under intense pressure as they go into the do-or-die sixth one-dayer against an upbeat Australia on Wednesday, fully aware that any slip-up at this stage could cost them the series.
The tourists are sitting pretty with a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series after the successive wash-outs of the fourth and fifth games of the long series at Ranchi and Cuttack on October 23 and 26.
The hosts have no option but to win the remaining two matches to clinch the series and any lapses in Wednesday's game could turn out to be disastrous for the team.
"From our point of view this is the game we want to win. We don't want to save it for the last game on Saturday (at Bangalore). We want to wrap up with this game. Obviously from their (India's) point of view they need to win to stay alive and from that point pretty crucial for them," said Australian left arm spinner Xavier Doherty in the run-up to the crucial match at the stadium.
Among the batsmen, openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are the top-scorers for the hosts, with the former consistently brilliant and the captain playing that superb innings at Mohali to help the team recover and post a challenging 300-plus total that was chased successfully by the visitors.
The worry for India is the middle order given the way Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh struggled against the pace and bounce extracted by Mitchell Johnson in Mohali.
The 31-year-old Queenslander produced a scintillating show in the last game that was not washed out in the series and he will come hard at these two batsmen again in the all-lefties' battle.
The wicket at the Jamtha stadium may not be as conducive for Johnson's type of bowling, but he and the other speedsters have certainly exposed some chinks with their short-ball attack in the Indian batting line up.
Ashwin, who grabbed 29 wickets in the four-Test series against the visitors in February-March, has taken some heavy punishment from the in-form Australian duo of opener Aaron Finch and skipper George Bailey.
To add to India 's bowling woes, Ishant Sharma has not looked like stemming the flow of runs after the way he was hammered for 30 in the 'death' over at Mohali, but his replacement Mohammed Shami impressed in the rained-off game at Ranchi.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar too has not looked good enough so far and gave way to Jaydev Unadkat in the Ranchi match which was abandoned when rains came during India's run-chase.
Shami, Unadkat and R Vinay Kumar, who too has been expensive, formed the new ball combination in Ranchi.
On otherhand, Aussies skipper George Bailey is confident his Australian team's momentum has survived the two abandoned matches.
But Bailey believes there's residual energy from James Faulkner's match-winning blitz in game three in Mohali and the recovery mission Bailey himself put on with Glenn Maxwell in Ranchi.
With India facing a sudden-death match, a prospect seen as unthinkable in their homeland when heavy favourites before the series started, Bailey is clear on what his team is expecting.
Every wicket in the series so far has proven essentially a batsman's paradise and Bailey said, while another fairly flat deck looked on offer, he was optimistic there was enough to give his bowlers something to work with.
Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin said Australia's bowlers had shown a willingness to extract life from every wicket they'd encountered so far and he expected the same on Wednesday against the high-class and potent India batting line-up.
Teams from:
India: MS Dhoni (Capt. & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Jaydev Unadkat and Mohammad. Shami.
Australia: George Bailey (Capt.), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Callum Ferguson, Aaron Finch, Brad Haddin (wk), Moises Henriques, Phil Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Clint McKay, Adam Voges, Shane Watson.
Match facts
Wednesday October 30, 2013 (day/night)
Start time 1330 local (0800 GMT)
