India will carry the hopes of billions of fans in the cricket crazy country and beyond when the unbeaten hosts face Australia in Sunday's World Cup final in Ahmedabad.
A showpiece match at the 130,000 capacity Narendra Modi Stadium -- named after the Indian Prime Minister, who is expected to attend the game -- will also feature a pre-match fly-past by the Indian Air Force as well as choreographed displays featuring dozens of dancers and light shows during the innings breaks.
Everything promises to be on a suitably grand scale given India is the economic powerhouse of the game.
But the cricket too could well live up to the occasion.
Unbeaten hosts India have won 10 games in a row on their way to the finish of the tournament as they seek a third World Cup title to follow their stunning victory over the West Indies in a 1983 final at Lord's and a 2011 home triumph sealed with victory against Sri Lanka in Mumbai.
Virat Kohli goes into the game as the tournament's leading batsman with 711 runs and having set a new record of 50 ODI hundreds in a 70-run semi-final win over New Zealand in Mumbai.
That innings saw the star batsman break the mark of 49 ODI centuries he had shared with retired India great Sachin Tendulkar -- a childhood hero of Kohli before the duo both featured in India's victorious 2011 side.
Mohammed Shami, meanwhile, tops the tournament bowling charts with 23 wickets at just 9.13 apiece, despite being left out of the side for the first four games before an injury to Hardik Pandya paved the way for the paceman's dramatic return.
- 'So much pressure' -
Yet for all India's unrivalled financial muscle and wealth of playing talent, it is 10 years since they last won a major international tournament -- the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Doubts still linger about whether a talented India team can stand up the strains of a final against a hardened Australia side full of proven big-match performers.
But India captain Rohit Sharma insisted Saturday: "We know how it is outside the environment that we have -- the expectations, and the pressure, and the criticism, and everything."
"Not many have played the finals, but like I said, playing for India is as good as playing any World Cup game because there's so much pressure. There's so much expectation."
The in-form opening batsman added: "Always at the airport, you're going here and there (hearing) 'you have to win the World Cup, you have to score runs, you have to score 200, you have to take five wickets'.
"It is in your ears all the time. I've seen guys starting to wear headphones now so that they can keep the noise out, but it's nice we have enjoyed our journey thoroughly till now, so just one final push."
Australia are bidding for a record-extending sixth World Cup title, with Sunday's game their eighth appearance in the final.
Their team is set to include several survivors from a 2015 World Cup final win over New Zealand in Melbourne, including opener David Warner, star batsman Steve Smith, all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and new-ball bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
"The good thing is we've got guys that won it in 2015," said Australia captain Pat Cummins, who was a squad member in 2015 as was teammate Mitchell Marsh.
"We know that feeling and won't be afraid to go out there and be brave and take the game on."
Australia lost their opening two matches of the tournament, going down by six wickets against India and then suffering a huge 134-run defeat by South Africa.
But they have since won eight games in a row and, worryingly for India, had their revenge over South Africa with a tense three wicket-win in a Kolkata semi-final where Cummins kept his cool in a nervy run-chase.
"There have been no huge wins," added Cummins. "We've had to fight for every win, but we've found a way to win."
Modi basks in World Cup success
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi cheers India in the blockbuster climax of the Cricket World Cup Sunday, commentators say he is also seeking to capitalise on the wildly popular sport to burnish his appeal ahead of elections next year.
For tournament organisers and for Modi -- after whom the world's biggest cricket stadium is named -- it is a dream finale.
Cricket is a national sporting obsession, and local fans are hoping to see their team continue its streak of 10 straight tournament wins as it faces Australia in the final.
Commentators say Modi has tried to co-opt cricket, turning it into a powerful political tool to bowl out political opponents by piggy-backing on the popular appeal of the game.
Writer Suresh Menon called the marathon World Cup tournament -- totalling 48 matches over 46 days at 10 carefully selected venues -- the "greatest interactive election campaign".
Sport and politics are already run hand-in-hand: Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is closely tied to India's hugely wealthy Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Watching the match with Modi will likely be his right-hand man, Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah and his son Jay Shah, the BCCI chief.
- 'Strident' -
All three come from western Gujarat state, where the critical games of the tournament have been played in the 130,000-seat Narendra Modi mega-stadium in Ahmedabad.
"It is no coincidence that the inaugural match, the final, the India-Pakistan match, the Australia-England match –- all the key contests -- were played at the Ahmedabad stadium," Menon told AFP.
Hundreds of millions of fans in India will follow the final match, with a victory sure to trigger euphoric celebrations.
The show-stopper final is set to include an airforce flypast, laser show, and hundreds of dancers performing Bollywood hit songs.
It is not the first time Modi has brought politics into the stadium.
In 2020, he hosted then-US president Donald Trump during a rally, while in March, he rode with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in a golden chariot around the grounds before a match.
Modi's government is far from the first to use cricket for political gain, but his populist BJP "has been more strident about it, more organised and less subtle", Menon added.
If India win, the team will not be the only victor, said cricket historian Ramachandra Guha.
"Many Indians will be quick to seize on that as further proof of the visionary leadership of Narendra Modi, and of our impending global dominance in spheres other than cricket as well," Guha wrote in The Financial Times.
- Olympic dreams -
Many see the World Cup as a stage show for Modi's domestic politics, in the same manner that hosting the G20 summit in September was for his global ambitions.
The 73-year-old leader, who is pushing for India to gain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, painted the G20 as his country's diplomatic coming of age.
India overtook China as the world's most populous country earlier this year, after displacing former coloniser Britain as its fifth-biggest economy in 2022.
But, beyond Modi's image adorning posters lining the streets, the G20 had little impact on the lives of ordinary Indians compared to the excitement and coverage of cricket.
"This total domination at an international game is a first for our nation," author Chetan Bhagat wrote in the Times of India on Saturday.
"It is also a template for how India can be the best in the world in another sport, in industry, business or even our infrastructure."
The World Cup is a key chance for Modi to illustrate his bigger sporting ambitions too, after last month announcing India would bid to stage the 2036 Olympics, with Ahmedabad a likely venue.
Cricket will feature in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the International Olympic Committee announced last month in Mumbai.
- 'Jingoistic' -
Under Modi's tenure, India has slumped in Freedom House's rankings for political rights and civil liberties, with police cracking down on protests, the ruling party scoring lavish funding from business allies and press freedoms curtailed.
His political career and success have been based on support from India's one-billion-plus Hindus and, critics say, stoking enmity toward the country's large Muslim minority.
Ahmedabad was the centre of deadly 2002 religious riots in which at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in sectarian violence that sent shock waves around the world.
As head of the Gujarat state government at the time, Modi was subsequently dogged by accusations that he turned a blind eye to the unrest, and was for a time subject to travel bans imposed by the United States and others before being cleared of conspiracy.
Modi's BJP is widely regarded as a certainty to win next year's general election, but is still "leaving nothing to chance", Guha added.
The World Cup is a "spectacular" show to aid that, he said, through "stoking of nationalistic, and occasionally jingoistic, pride through the medium of what is not merely the favourite sport, but also the most alluring form of entertainment, for Indians today".