Confidence is the common factor

And Kenyan skipper Steve Tikolo, asked who he’d prefer to play, said, ‘‘Whether Australia or Lanka in the final or India on Thursday, we have no problem playing anybody.’’

It was left to Kenyan coach Sandeep Patil to provide the voice of caution. Refusing to be dragged into the hype game, he said he didn’t want to make any statement ‘‘which will be difficult for me to digest after the game is over.’’

But it was lost amid the buzz, especially in the Indian camp. Such has been the positive energy flowing around Ganguly’s men that at team meetings the main focus is on the team strength rather than thinking about the rivals.

As the baby of the team Parthiv Patel said, after another long one-on-one session with coach John Wright, ‘‘We are concentrating more on improving ourselves rather than worrying about the opposition.’’

Harbhajan made the same point. ‘‘Our bowlers are bowling so well, we have the best batting line-up in the world and our fielding too has improved so much. We have been winning abroad and we all think that we can win the Cup.’’

Comments like these make one fear that overconfidence, rather than Kenya, will be India’s downfall. That, though, is where the seniors in the side come in. Javagal Srinath comes up provides with the perfect antidote. ‘‘We are pretty sure that we are not going to get carried away. We have to guard against complacency,’’ he says.

If Srinath felt obliged to downplay his colleagues’ exuberance, Patil was under no illusion that his team were properly focussed. ‘‘Other than the great performances the best thing about my boys is the way they have handled the adulation and the praise. They have been very level-headed,’’ he said.