There is a difference between being confident, over confident and complacent. I believe that players should be confident and back themselves in any given situation. Confidence breeds success, whereas a lack of it becomes a passport to failure and creates situations where excuses for poor performances can be made.

Like most sport, the game of cricket is a contest of mental aptitude. Confidence is a feeling which should be kept to yourself. A confident player should show his level of confidence through the demonstration of his skill and it becomes an interesting battle when an inform batsman, a successful bowler or a fast and accurate fielder puts out the challenge to the opposition in the middle.

Over confidence is often demonstrated by people publicly saying that there are on top of a situation or better than their opposition. Complacency is waiting for something to happensuch as a mistake by the opposition that you can capitalise on. I see no place for either complacency or over confidence in sport played at any level.

It is no doubt that the Indian cricket team were motivated by comments in an article in this morning's national newspaper, written by New Zealand coach, Steve Rixon. He said that the New Zealand team were in the box seat and playing good cricket, while the Indian team looked to him as though they only had one thing on their minds their flight home. He said that the New Zealand team would put today's match in the bag and continue onto the final game in Christchurch to complete the series win!

I am sure that those comments motivated the Indian team in today's fourth one-day international at Eden Park in Auckland. The Indians were rewarded for their positive approach and the way they made things happen. Winning the toss was a big advantage and asking New Zealand to bat on a frisky pitch created many problems for the Black Cap batsmen. Srinath was in his bestform of the tour so far, picking up three wickets while it was a positive move by Azharuddin to have Prasad bowl his 10 overs on the trot.

New Zealand's score of 207 for 8 was never going to be enough, although if New Zealand bowled well it could have been competitive. Chris Cairns had a very good day with the bat for New Zealand as well as putting in a solid bowling performance picking up three wickets. However, he lacked support from both batsmen and bowlers.

India chased the target positively and won the match quite comfortably. Ganguly, with another half century, continued to impress in the one day format, and Man of the Match, Dravid, who continued his display of outstanding success on this tour, compiled another half century and proved to be a difficult man to dislodge. Useful contributions from skipper Azhar and Jadeja allowed India to make it comfortably. Their foot work, particularly to the spinner, Vettori, was excellent. Vettori, who bowled quite well, managed to get the ball to spin a bit.However, with limited protection in the deep, he was smacked out of the attack.

The series is now 2-1 to India and deservedly so. If New Zealand look back at this series so far, their performance has not been very impressive. In Taupo, the Black Caps won the match with a revised target. In Napier, they did everything but run themselves out of the game and allowed India to sneak in and win it. In Wellington New Zealand conceded 99 runs off the last 12 overs, with Chris Cairns grassing two catches. In today's performance India completely outplayed New Zealand, so now it is the Black Caps who will need to re-assess the situation for the final one day match in the series at Jade Stadium at Lancaster Park in Christchurch, in three days time. They will need to improve their all round performance if they hope to square the series 2-2.

Scoreboard

New Zealand: Matthew Horne c Azhar b Srinath 1, Bryan Young b Srinath 0, Craig McMillan b Prasad 24, Roger Twose c Azhar b Srinath 7, Chris Cairns c Jadeja bChopra 44, Adam Parore b Ganguly 12, Dion Nash c Dravid b Tendulkar 36, Chris Harris not out 42, Daniel Vettori not out 22. Extras (lb7, nb8, w4): 19.

Total (for seven wkts, 50 overs) 207

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-8, 3-29, 4-52, 5-89, 6-119, 7-181.

Bowling: Srinath 9-0-41-3, Prasad 10-1-24-1, R Singh 2-0-19-0, Kumble 10-0-37-0, Ganguly 6-1-18-1, Tendulkar 6-0-29-1, Chopra 7-0-32-1.

India: Sachin Tendulkar lbw Cairns 5, Saurav Ganguly c Parore b Cairns 50, Rahul Dravid b Cairns 51, Mohd Azharuddin c Twose b Doull 35, Ajay Jadeja lbw Doull 36, Robin Singh not out 14, Nayan Mongia not out 6. Extras (lb4; w6; nb1): 11.

Total (for five wickets in 43.5 overs) 208

Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-112, 3-119, 4-183, 5-188.

Bowling: doull 10-0-46-2 (2w), Cairns 8-0-28-3 (3w), Nash 7-1-27-0 (1nb), Larsen 7-0-23-0, Harris 5-0-30-0, Vettori 6-1-44-0, McMillan 0.5.0-6-0.