The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Sydney

With the war of words between the sides, the stage is set for a thrilling conclusion to the last triangular one-day series when the finals get underway with a clash between arch rivals Australia and India here on Sunday.

It has been a bitter campaign between the sides, especially since the second Test in Sydney in early January, but the Indians can gain revenge for their 2-1 loss in the Test series by upsetting the home side in the best-of-three finals.

The tri-series concept will be scrapped at the end of this tournament and victory would give Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men evidence to back their claims that they are the challenger to Australia's dominance of world cricket.

There will be no shortage of motivation for the two sides, after all the ill feeling between the sides over the last two months.

The bad blood first surfaced during the second Test, when Harbhajan Singh copped a three-match suspension for allegedly racially abusing Andrew Symonds, a suspension overturned at an International Cricket Council appeal hearing.

This week tensions exploded again, with Ishant Sharma fined for a verbal exchange with Symonds and the Indians countering with a complaint about provocative behaviour by the Australians.

Matthew Hayden then called Harbhajan an "obnoxious weed" on radio and the Indian spinner responded by saying the big opener was one of the least liked players in world cricket. While plenty of words have been exchanged, the Indians notched just one win over the home side in their four qualifying matches and have just one victory from their last 10 one-day games against the Australians.

However, they have taken confidence out of their narrow loss to Australia at their last meeting, also in Sydney, on Sunday.

Set a mammoth 318 to win, India lost by just 18 runs despite a top order collapse.

Encouragingly for India, several of their most important batsmen appear to be hitting their straps at the right time.