An upbeat Kenya prepares for Paarl

Behind the elegant facade of a laid-back character lurks the sharp cricketing brain of Sandeep Patil. The former Indian batsman, now the coach of Kenya, virtually taunted the Indian cricket team by giving his boys a day off from practice at Newlands on Sunday. All the three teams are staying at Hotel Cullinan in downtown Cape Town, and it was a sight to see the Kenyans get ready to go off for a bit of fun on Sunday while the grim-faced Indians lumbered up at the reception to ride the team bus to a practice session.

Admittedly, the Indians have much to lose if they mess it up at Paarl on Wednesday, but by the same token, Kenya has much to gain as well if they can spring a surprise similar to what they did at Port Elizabeth last week.

"I don't want to put pressure on the boys," says Patil. "Let them enjoy themselves." He adds: "I still maintain we have come here to learn and not concentrate on winning alone. The boys would do better if they go out and play with spirit, and not tense themselves with the idea of winning."

Both India, and South Africa, for that matter, are not willing to treat Kenya with disrespect any longer. "We sure would give our other boys a chance in tomorrow's game," said South African captain Shaun Pollock. "But we don't want to treat them lightly, especially in the light of what happened to India."

India, having once burnt their fingers in the Kenyan fire, are surely a perfect subject matter for once-bitten-twice-shy case studies. They chose to avoid practicing at Newlands in Cape Town and decided instead to travel all the way to Paarl to form an early view of the conditions and the pitch.

Suddenly, in light of what Patil observed at St. George's Park in Port Elizabeth last week, making a shrewd observation of what the wind could do to hold the ball up, the Indians descended on Paarl to look at the conditions and make their own personal notes.

India can ill-afford to lose another game to Kenya. One loss against the minnows was bad enough; another would be too bitter a pill to swallow. The Indians may want to let the meek inherit the earth, but they must wait for a suitable date and time.

Sourav Ganguly’s men have mixed impressions of this venue. They played a tied match against Zimbabwe during the triangular series of the 1997 tour, and that kept them on tenterhooks till the last league game for a place in the finals. The situation is not dissimilar this time, where India must knock out Kenya to play South Africa for the trophy on Friday.

They are, thus, leaving no stone unturned, and VVS Laxman is set to join the team on Monday at around noon. It means that the elegant Hyderabadi will just have a day's nets before he possibly replaces Shiv Sunder Das in the eleven against Kenya on Wednesday.

Patil, meanwhile, gives a wry you-judge-it-for-yourself smile when he is asked about Bob Woolmer's contribution to his side's triumph last week. "Yes, I know, he took a few of my players out for dinner," says Patil and stops, refusing to shout himself hoarse over such a blatant denial of his role in Kenya's turnaround.

Sachin Tendulkar will be looking to settle a few personal scores with Joseph Angara, who bowled him two maiden overs and also inflicted the indignity of knocking back his stumps. The Indians are now prepared for Angara, and it remains to be seen what new surprises Patil will spring on the team that he coached only five years ago.