India vs Australia: when the World Cup bursts into life

Australia are training in the outdoor nets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium as the sun sets over the Marina, a beach so wide that the water seems to start at the horizon. From up close, Mitchell Starc's run-up seems almost as long, and Steven Smith, it feels, has been batting for an eternity.

By Chennai's standards, it's an unusually cool evening. The monsoon has come early and the tree-lined streets leading to the stadium are wet, but the relief from the balmy heat is set off by worry about the fate of the match. However, locals are confident that weather disruptions, if any, will be minor. Which is just as well.

With apologies to the other teams, this World Cup will burst to life when India take on Australia on Sunday.

India vs Pakistan in Ahmedabad is billed as the blockbuster of the tournament. It's hard to match the emotional charge, visceral and bordering on the toxic, of a cricket match between these two countries.

England vs Australia carries the significance of history and tradition, but for those who know their cricket, India vs Australia is a whole new feeling. Over the last two decades, they have been the worthiest of opponents, producing epic, gladiatorial, astonishing, and unforgettable contests. In many ways, it's a sporting rivalry of the purest kind, based mainly on the quality of the cricket, the performances it has extracted and the memories it has created.

Great players and performances are measured against the toughness of their opponents, and Indian players of the last two generations have their Australian links firmly established. It began with Sachin Tendulkar, who announced himself to the world with that dazzling hundred as a teenager in Perth in 1992 and went on to score ten more in Tests, and 20 in all, against Australia. VVS Laxman's 281 in Kolkata in 2001 remains arguably the greatest Test innings by an Indian, and Rahul Dravid would count his 180 in that Test, and his match-winning double-hundred in Adelaide in 2003, among his finest.

Virat Kohli, Tendulkar's batting successor, has followed the same path, saving his best for his greatest opponents, starting with a maiden Test hundred in Adelaide and following with seven more in Tests and 16 overall.

Though he took his time to establish himself in the national side, Rohit Sharma's precocity was established with a half-century full of serene drives in the first of two CB Series finals in 2008, in the course of which he helped India with a 123-run partnership with Tendulkar on a tough pitch. KL Rahul discovered himself as an international player with a stroke-filled hundred in Sydney in 2015, and the 91 from Shubman Gill - tipped to be India's next all-format batting great - that set up India's astonishing and history-making chase in Brisbane in 2021 has to be his best international innings yet.

Australia's World Cup dominance has its roots in India, where they came from behind in 1987 to win their first title in Calcutta, in front of the biggest audience for a World Cup final. It kicked off a journey where they became the pre-eminent team across formats. One of the architects of that win, Steve Waugh, would go on to elevate India in the minds of his compatriots as worthy rivals for Australia with his remark in 2001 about India being the final frontier for them. India have matched them step for step since. No other team has taken more Test series off Australia this century, and apart from South Africa, no other team has beaten them back to back in their own den. Between them, the two teams have ten appearances in World Cup finals, and seven winners' trophies, and in the minds of many, Sunday's match is already a final before the actual final, however early it may come in the tournament.

The MA Chidambaram Stadium, a cricket venue steeped in the history and tradition of the game, where the reverence, affection and care for the sport is evident in every wall, and will be in the crowds that will fill the ground on Sunday, seems the appropriate stage for this event. The freshly painted murals that greet you when you walk through the main entrance depict Chennai's cricket heritage, the stadium itself gleams with a new coat of white, the stands have been redesigned in recent years to let in sea breeze, and the outfield is lush.

The last World Cup encounter between these two teams here was a thriller in 1987 that Australia edged by a run, just a year after the two teams played out a tied Test, only the second in history, on the same turf. Like he would go on to do in the final, Waugh defended eight runs in the last over of that Chepauk ODI, and two off the last ball, with, by some uncanny coincidence, Maninder Singh, the batter who faced the final ball in the tied Test, on strike.

In hindsight, it was a reversed decision that became the clincher. A hit over the top down the ground by Dean Jones off Maninder had initially been deemed a four but was changed to six upon review during the break by umpire Dickie Bird, following protests from the Australians. In the absence of conclusive television evidence, it's a call that is still disputed by the players involved, but it was a sign of the times that the incident led to no outrage then - let alone a diplomatic crisis between the boards.

Australia have gone on to win four more World Cups since then, and India are the game's undisputed powerhouse. The IPL draws the best of the world to these shores for nearly two months every year, and none more than it does the Australians. Cultural differences have melted away and so has the challenge of alien playing conditions. Many of the Australians in this year's World Cup team have adopted India as a second home, or at least as a regular workplace away from home.

So setting aside the rankings and recent form - India are on a hot streak and Australia have lost five of their last six ODIs - it will be a match of equals when the coin comes down on Sunday. Australia will put on their tournament armour against what feels like the best-prepared Indian team at a World Cup in recent memory.

If signs are your thing, here's another filter to gauge the significance of this match by. Barring 1987, Australia, the winningest World Cup side, have never won the World Cup when they have lost to India at least once in the tournament; and both of India's World Cup-winning campaigns have featured a win over Australia in the earlier rounds.

But why rely on quirky stats when the evidence before us points to the prospects of an utterly compelling day of cricket between two hot pre-tournament favourites?