"It is a game that really sets up where we end up and which team we could play in the quarter-finals. The key factor is you have got to keep winning. A win against Australia is very, very crucial."
The 1992 Kiwi side featured one of the best batting line-ups ever assembled but the bowling wasn't as strong as today's team, said Patel, who now works as Papua New Guinea Cricket's coaching director. In 1992 the Kiwis' "dibbly dobbly" attack got by thanks to the slow pitches and the aggressive captaincy of Martin Crowe, while today's side is spearheaded by dangerous pace bowlers Tim Southee and Trent Boult and backed up by crafty veteran spinner Daniel Vettori.
"This team is probably the most balanced team we have had," said Patel, who removed Australian captain Allan Border for three in one of the key moments of the '92 victory.
Batsman Ken Rutherford, another star of the '92 campaign, recalls the match against Australia as being a comparatively low-key affair.
"I honestly don't think we were expecting much of ourselves against a very good Australian team and I don't think the public were either," said Rutherford, who scored 57 in a crucial 118-run partnership with centurion Crowe.
"My memory of it was turning up in the morning and singing the national anthem for the first ever time and thinking to myself, 'Gee, this place is only half-full'."
The crowd grew during the day when it became apparent the Kiwis had a chance of pulling off a shock victory, but it wasn't until later in the tournament against the West Indies and Pakistan that the crowds really flocked to the matches.
The level of expectation on the '92 side only really began to build after they followed the Australia victory with solid wins over Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. The current side have already matched that perfect start - including a rousing demolition of England in Wellington last Friday - so this time around the expectation has well and truly built ahead of the showdown with the tournament favourites.
"Going into this tournament we all wondered how they would handle it and they are handling it really well," said Rutherford. "I'm one of those who is waiting to see a chink in the armour. Maybe it will be this Saturday. Let's wait and see.
"Perhaps we will look back in a month's time and say that was the key moment of this world cup."
Beating Australia was the key to the successful '92 campaign and it will be equally as important for the Black Caps to match that effort on Saturday, Rutherford and Patel agree.
"From then on the belief was so much greater and it just seemed to continue for the rest of the tournament," Patel said.
