The walk back to the pavilion can at times be tragic. A dive could have helped Mahendra Singh Dhoni regain his ground but Martin Guptill’s laser-guided throw from deep backward square leg left him a woeful yard short.

Controlling one’s emotions is often tough but the 2011 World Cup-winning captain revealed more than a year later that he had decided not to show any as he left the field at Old Trafford in Manchester in 2019; that game was to be his last international appearance.

As the last whiff of hope vanished with Dhoni gone, India were knocked out in unrealistic circumstances, a 50-over match spilling onto the second day because of rain. The top-three of India’s batting — K.L. Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli — had been dismissed for identical scores of 1 as New Zealand’s quicks cut through the top-order. A late surge by Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja had raised expectations but it wasn’t to last.

The curse of the semi-finals had returned to haunt India in 2019 after having suffered a similar fate four years earlier at the hands of Australia in Sydney.

Rohit Sharma’s Boys in Blue will desperately want to prevent an encore at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. Some familiar faces on the Kiwi side are sure to bring back dire memories from Manchester four seasons ago, although there are only five survivors from that lost encounter in the Indian dressing room.

Skipper Rohit Sharma, one of those men, is unfazed. His team has barely put a foot wrong through this World Cup, and there isn’t a game of the nine in the league stage that they lost.

“This current crop of players, they’re very much into what is happening today, what can happen tomorrow. Those are the things they try to focus on. I don’t see them talking about how we won the last World Cup,” Rohit said on Tuesday.

Rohit added: “The focus is on how they can get better as a player, what they can bring to the team and what are the things they need to improve. So that’s the beauty of this crop of players.”

But what about players like him and Kohli, the experienced lot?

“Obviously at the back of your mind, you know what has happened in the past. But what has happened in the past is the past. What you can do today, what you can do tomorrow is what we usually talk about. So I don’t think there’s much debate or much talk about what happened five years ago or the last World Cup as well,” Rohit added.

“Whenever you play a World Cup game, there is always pressure. This is obvious because it is the World Cup... that’s why there is pressure. But we have handled that pressure very well in the last nine games.... The boys gave a good response. We were only focused on our game.”

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson wasn’t willing to reveal much.

“Every game in this tournament is a tricky one. I think as we’ve seen throughout, any team can beat anybody on the day.... For us, it’s great to have got to the final stages and then take a fresh approach because it does start again,” was Williamson’s evaluation.

Under Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid, the side is more balanced and have adapted nicely to an aggressive and fearless brand of cricket. Rohit himself is adept at expressing himself more freely at the top which has percolated down the order.

In the captain’s own words, the “clarity of roles” and “freedom of expression” have been the driving force for this team.

There’s Kohli who never shies away from challenges and will try not to miss the opportunity to record his 50th ODI century in front of Sachin Tendulkar after equalling the Master at Eden Gardens. He had missed the chance to equal Sachin’s record 49th ton here, falling short by a mere 12 runs.

It’s not just Kohli but four of India’s top-five have centuries in this World Cup, a rare achievement for any team. The absence of Hardik Pandya has been neutralised by the scintillating KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer.

India’s opening match had provided a hint of their ability to rise to the occasion: From 2 down for 3 in the second over, Kohli and Rahul forged together a partnership to hand Australia a six-wicket defeat in Chennai.

The bowling has been lethal with the trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami now being compared with the all-time best in white-ball cricket. This transformation since 2019 has left other teams in awe and struggling to find ways to tackle them.

Will the presence of five left-handers in the New Zealand line-up prompt the team management to play Ravichandran Ashwin? What if any of the bowlers have an off day? Who to fall back on if Rachin Ravindra gets into one of his murderous moods?

A knockout fixture always involves more pressure but Rohit is not ready to ride the talk. “Hope we don’t have to deal with such situations and don’t need other options,” was his honest reply.

If Rohit’s team goes all the way, it would surely go down as one of the most intimidating teams in terms of balance, form and performance. Rohit is keeping fingers crossed and so are the other legends.

Both Dhoni and Tendulkar have refrained from making a comment and adding to the players’ pressure after India’s nine-match winning streak in this edition.

“I know people have this tendency of talking about things and then saying, koi pressure mat lena (don’t take pressure). It does not work that way,” Tendulkar had said.

Dhoni was more blunt.

“Bhavnao ko samjho… it is a very good team… bahut achcha balance hai team ka… sab log achcha khel rahe hain… isse zyada main kuch nahin bolunga, baki samajhdar ko ishaara kaafi hai (please understand the sentiments… it is a very good team… has a very good balance… everyone is playing well… don’t want to say more than that… a hint is enough for the wise),” he said recently.

Perhaps Dhoni is leaving it to the players to break the semi-final hoodoo that has haunted the team in the last two editions.