Captain Angelo Mathews insists revenge will not be on his mind when Sri Lanka face their World Cup final conquerors India in Thursday's Champions Trophy semi-final in Cardiff.
Sri Lanka were denied a global 50-over title in 2011 when India claimed a six-wicket victory in Mumbai, and have lost seven of the 10 one-day internationals the teams have played since.
Mathews is well aware of how important a win would be, but claims it would not have any extra significance because of the opponent.
"There's no room for revenge in sport, but if we can beat the Indians, I think it'll be a great achievement for the whole team," he said.
"We still have thoughts about the World Cup final, and the recent history against them is not very good for Sri Lanka.
"But I think the past is the past and we need to move on with the present situation.
"The past history has not been very good for Sri Lanka, but hopefully once again we are in very good mental and physical condition for tomorrow's game, so hopefully we can beat India.
"We don't need to sort of have any special chat about tomorrow's game. But we need to do our thing right and our basics the way we do it.
"India is a very strong team to beat and they've got a good batting line-up. They are a good balanced team, and I think we need to play positive cricket.
"The weather is not in our control. Apparently it's going to rain quite a bit, but we need to try and control the things that we can control - batting, bowling and fielding.
"We will try and do our best in that and try and win."
While India advanced to the semi-finals with three relatively comfortable victories, Sri Lanka were involved in a trio of close encounters and came through must-win games against hosts England and Australia to seal a last-four spot.
Mathews hopes those experiences may give his side an edge when it comes to the crunch.
"We are a fighting team. All three group games went down to the wire, and we had to fight really hard to win," he reasoned.
"The team confidence is very high. We know that we are a fighting team, and we fight to the last moment. Hopefully, we can once again have a good performance."
Lasith Malinga's performance with the ball will, as usual, be a key element for the Sri Lankans, but the paceman has a poor record against India.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni suggested familiarity with Malinga's mix of speed and swing through the Indian Premier League is a contributing factor, but Mathews is confident his strike bowler will have a few tricks up his sleeve.
He said: "We play against India a lot, as well, not only in the IPL, and whoever who is playing against anyone all the time gets used to them.
"But Lasith - he's a very good bowler and he's an experienced bowler to come into those situations.
"Yes, the Indians might have played Lasith quite a lot, but I'm sure he's a very experienced bowler and he has a few different ideas for tomorrow."