LAHORE, March 22: India's dismal record in tournament finals has given them something to prove in the decisive One-day International against Pakistan on Wednesday.

The day/night match at the Qadhafi Stadium is the final one-dayer with the series tied at 2-2 after four close games. "We haven't played well in crunch finals," Indian vice-captain Rahul Dravid said. "That's something we definitely want to improve upon in Wednesday's match."

The Indian team has lost four one-day tournament finals in a row, all of them to Australia, starting from their crushing 125-run defeat in the 2003 World Cup final in South Africa.

They lost a triangular series final at Kolkata last November, managing only 198 while chasing a target of 254, and went down 2-0 in the best-of-three tri-series finals in Australia this year, losing by seven wickets and 208 runs.

"It's not just about winning or losing. We just hope we can play to our potential on Wednesday. Our biggest problem of late in finals has been that we've badly under-performed," Dravid said. But coach John Wright said an indication of India's overall consistency was that they were making so many finals. "It's better to lose in the final than not get there at all," Wright said.

"We've lost to Australia, and that's something we need to do something about, but we've done very well against all other teams." India' strong batting line-up proved their worth again on Sunday, chasing a demanding 294 to level the series.

Five of their main batsmen, with the exception of skipper Saurav Ganguly and Vangipurappu Laxman, have already struck half-centuries in the series. But bowling is a serious worry with main spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh injured and left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan out of form since his return from hamstring injury.

"Our bowling is improving as the series is progressing," Dravid said. "Zaheer is coming back from injury and things are starting to fall into place for him. The team is fired up and hopefully the bowlers will deliver."-Reuters