New Zealand look to open wounds in crunch match against India

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming raised the stakes ahead of Friday's must-win World Cup clash against India by reminding his rivals of the drubbing they received three months ago.

Sourav Ganguly's men were thrashed 2-0 in the Tests and 5-2 in the one-dayers on the tour of New Zealand in December-January amidst complaints of poor wickets heavily tilted in favour of the bowlers.

But the Indians put aside the disappointment of that tour to win seven of their eight World Cup matches so far and book a place in the semi-finals alongside Australia and Kenya.

The Kiwis, meanwhile, allowed Australia to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat at Port Elizabeth and must now beat India at the Centurion on Friday to grab the fourth spot.

Fleming, however, was unconcerned about the terrific form shown by the Indians at the tournament.

"They'll be confident but sometimes that can be a weakness. Hopefully we can open up some of the wounds we opened in New Zealand," Fleming said.

His Indian counterpart, Sourav Ganguly, however, refused to worry about the past.

"History does not interest me, that's over, it's behind us," he said.

Ganguly stressed it was important to win to keep the momentum flowing.

"We can't take it lightly, it's a World Cup game after all," he said.

"Moreover it would be great to go into the semi-finals with eight wins in nine matches."

India's New Zealand coach John Wright continued the mind games, saying Kiwi pace bowling sensation Shane Bond will not pose any problems for Sachin Tendulkar.

"Sachin can take care of anything," Wright said.

Tendulkar, one-day cricket's leading batsman, has scored a record 571 runs in this tournament, while Bond scared the living daylights out of the Australians on Tuesday with a fiery burst of 6-23 at Port Elizabeth.

"There is no grudge, we just have to play as well as we have been doing in the tournament and get through this game," Wright said. "From 14 teams, we have made it to the top four because we have played very good cricket.

"But we need to concentrate hard because no win is easy."

Ganguly said it was too early to think of the final.

"We have to take it one match at a time. For that matter so have Australia. Even they have not qualified for the final yet," he said.

Teams (from):

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Lou Vincent, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond, Jacob Oram, Daryl Tuffey, Daniel Vettori, Craig McMillan, Andre Adams, Kyle Mills, Matthew Sinclair, Scott Styris

India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Mongia, Javagal Srinath, Parthiv Patel, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Sanjay Bangar, Ajit Agarkar