Over the last four weeks every now and then, each time India took the field, chants of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ were fairly common to eardrums. These chants were most often celebratory, and sometimes stray and exhortative when the crowd sensed that India were lagging a tad behind and trying to play catch-up with its opponents.

The Men in Blue are carrying the passionate support, but also the expectations, of more than a billion people. As the knockouts draw closer, they could be losing their sleep over the gargantuan pressure that a home World Cup brings. More so, because, they are yet to win a World Cup since 2011, as were vanquished in the semi-finals in each of the past two editions and also thwarted in the Twenty20 World Cup.