India taking inspiration for Australia contest from 2021 tour Down Under, not 2017 World Cup semi

India opener Smriti Mandhana and Australia head coach Matthew Mott have said the 2017 ODI World Cup semi-final that India won has not been on either side's minds ahead of their 2022 ODI World Cup clash.

Though their loss to India in the semi-final five years ago reshaped Australia's values, Mott said the weight of that defeat has fizzled out as time has passed.

"Well, for us it's a non-event internally," Mott said in Auckland. "We're just looking forward to another match. It's an opportunity to put our case forward for the semi-finals, which is what we've come here to do. Everyone seems to be beating everyone at the moment. So to get out in front with another win would be a huge advantage and then we can sort of dictate our own terms on the finals. There's a lot to play for.

"Literally, the last thing on our mind, the moment is what happened five years ago, so we're just really determined to make every match count. India's our only focus at the moment, we've done a lot of research on them. And we match up well against them. They're a good cricket side, but it's going to be a hell of a game tomorrow night."

Instead of the 2017 semi-final, Mandhana said that the Indian team has been drawing motivation from their performance on the 2021 tour of Australia, where they narrowly lost the three-match ODI series 1-2.

"We all know, everyone knows, what has happened in 2017 but I think it's better that we don't really think about it. It's going to be a fresh day [tomorrow]," Mandhana said. "More than 2017, we definitely had a word about how we went about in the series against Australia when we were touring Australia [last year] and the kind of cricket we played there and the kind of bowling we did there. So that's something which we have had discussions around. And that's something which has given a lot of confidence to all the players because we have done well in the recent past against them.

"Definitely we couldn't win the series. [The] Second match also we almost won against them, so it would have been like a series win. So that's kind of the brand of cricket we wanted to play and we played there so that's something which has definitely motivated all the girls to go out there and perform the same way."

Australia have so far lived up to their billing as title favourites, winning all their four games so far in the competition. India, however, have blown hot and cold, losing two of their first four fixtures, leaving their qualification for the final four far from being certain. Mott, however, believes India's new-ball attack and their "dangerous" lower-order batting could hurt his side that will reach the semis with a win over India.

"It's a good time to play India," Mott said. "I see them as an incredibly dangerous side. We are rolling with some confidence at the moment but as we always say, it's this game in isolation and everything that we're talking about at the moment is about how we can combat India. They've got one of the best new-ball bowling attacks in the world and we found that out last summer. So once again, we talked about negating that and that trying to build a base is very important.

"From a bowling perspective, they just keep coming with genuine match-winners, so even if we get off to a good start, we've got to respect that they've got some dangerous players down the order that can hurt us as well. And it's a game that we have to be at our very, very best to overcome them and then we'll reset for the next one."