JOHANNESBURG, March 21: Australia vice-captain Adam Gilchrist believes the pace of Brett Lee will play on the minds of India’s batsmen ahead of Sunday’s final.

The fair-haired Lee, with 20 wickets, terrorised the India top-order in the group phase as they lost by nine wickets.

“He rattled the Indians at Centurion Park,” Gilchrist said.

“It was a tactical move by Ricky to give Brett the new ball, as usually we had seen McGrath and Gillespie share it, but he decided to take them on with pace straight away.

“Brett came through and so it will be on their minds for sure and they will also remember they had to face him when he first came into international cricket and was bowling with real pace then as well.”

India lost that game by nine wickets but are unbeaten since. With a host of top-class batsmen in their line-up, Gilchrist said pace had to be laced with control.

“It is one element playing on the batsmen’s minds but it doesn’t necessarily equal wickets. You have still got the execute well.”

Lee has done that superbly during the tournament and was at his brutal best against Sri Lanka in Tuesday’s semifinal.

Then, he captured three for 35, but Gilchrist argued the way Lee took his wickets was also significant.

“If he knocks the stumps right out of the ground against a player like (Marvan) Atapattu (as he did on Tuesday), that can have a devastating effect on the psyche of the opposition.”

Lee again touched 160 kph (99.42 mph) on Tuesday, but Gilchrist was sceptical.

“I’m not 100 percent convinced about the speed guns because there are days when I take a delivery and think it has to be one of the quickest he has bowled and it only registers at 140kph,” he said.

“At other times he bowls a ball that shows up as 158 or 160 and it might not seem as quick, but what I can say is he is consistently bowling balls that I am taking and thinking it is extremely quick.”

That consistent pace tells Gilchrist that Lee is returning to the sort of form he showed when he broke into the Australia side in 1999-2000.

“He has bowled with a lot of fire and aggression and he seems to have been doing that a lot more regularly in recent times,” he said.—Reuters