Ahead of an easy Super Six clash against Kenya, Indiancoach John Wright stressed on the importance of maintaining the winning momentumand asked his team not to lower its guard or under-rate its opponents.
"We must keep our feet on the ground and prepareas well as we can," said Wright as India came for their first practicesession since beating Pakistan in their last league encounter on Saturday.
"We are still half-way along the road. We havestill got steeper pitch to come. We have to realise we are just one of the sixteams (competing for the title)," Wright said.
"We respect them (Kenya) as an opposition and mustguard against complacency." After faltering against Australia, India havesteadily improved their performance and scored convincing victories againstZimbabwe, Namibia, England and Pakistan to reach the Super Sixes as thesecond-placed team in Group A.
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Wright said it was important that India performed withthe same intensity against Kenya too on Friday.
"We have been out of a fairly tough group and eachgame after Australia has been pressure-type game for us. But I would notencourage any difference only because it is Kenya. We must take one game at atime," he said.
Wright also recalled that Kenya had beaten India inPort Elizabeth in 2001.
"When we last played them we beat them in twogames but then they got the better of us in Port Elizabeth, so we have to becareful," he said.
Talking about Sachin Tendulkar's phenomenal innings against Pakistan, Wrightsaid his ominous form was a good sign for the team.
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"The quality of Sachin's innings (againstPakistan), I think, even for him, was higher than normal. It was a tremendouspiece of batting and from my point of view it was just a privilege to watch it.
"He has taken advantage of the opening position helikes and he is showing the cricketing public all the nice things you writeabout him from time to time is true," he said.
"It is good for us he is playing in this mannerand long may he continue." Wright said Tendulkar would be the key in thegame against Kenya also as the team would be looking for him to provide a goodstart.
"We would like a good solid start with wickets inhand for the last 15-18 overs. You can accelerate from there but we have toremember Kenya have bowled and fielded very efficiently.
"Having said that, we have the batters, whetherbatting first or in the second half, to get the job done. The batsmen must getgood starts and then build on it to get big scores," he said.
Wright did not think the slow medium pace of Kenyanbowlers would create problems for the free-scoring Indians.
"I think we are getting better at rotating thestrike. You saw evidence of that against Pakistan with Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj andMohammad Kaif doing a good job. We are not perfect by any means but we areimproving.
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PTI
