However, in the last league game against Scotland, India were made to struggle. Trailing by a goal and playing with 10 players in the last six minutes, India still managed to get an equaliser and earlier on, survived a penalty stroke which the Scots squandered.

So India will have to be at the very best against England. The Indian team management has made an appeal on grounds that the umpire misunderstood captain Sita Gussain -- who was sent off yesterday for using abusive language -- who was speaking in Hindi. The appeals committee will take a decision on whether to allow her to play the semis later tonight.

England has been strengthened by the return of Tina Cullen, who was injured when theteams last met at the World Cup. She has been the mainstay and could play the decisive role, as India may have to make do without one of their star forwards.

Most rival teams know that Gussain, Pritam Rani and Sandeep Kaur are India's main strikers and Rani is likely to be marked tightly. But the factor that will be heavily in India's favour is the crowd support. That was in evidence in the match against Scotland.

World and Olympic champions Australia will start as favourites against their Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in the other semi-final. Australia have been in tremendous form and it will require a big upset to stop them from adding the Commonwealth Games gold medal to complete hockey's version of a Grand Slam.