The shirt in the shop window said it all. Bearing a picture of Sachin Tendulkar with his bat lifted, his eyes raised to the heavens, it said: 'Celebrating 50th Test century.' And then, in small print below: '50th ODI century in few days.'

Of course there's no way that Tendulkar could possibly hit his 50th one-day century in the final, unless he scored centuries for both sides. He currently sits on 48, but he could reach 100 international hundreds having already notched up his 51st Test ton.

More than anything, though, the t-shirt summed up the wave of expectation which has swept through Mumbai in the days since India were confirmed as finalists.

Ever since Mumbai was named as the venue for the final it has seemed India's destiny to lift the trophy in Tendulkar's home town, with the hero making a valuable contribution to cap an incredible career.

It's a belief which stems from his sense of occasion - a little more than two years ago it was Mumbai's favourite son who hit an unbeaten century to see India to victory over England in Chennai as the home side pulled off one of the highest run chases in Test history.

With nobody in town even doubting for a second that Sri Lanka could spoil the party, Mumbaikers have scrambled to pick up tickets on the black market to make sure they can say 'I was there' when the final is spoken of in years to come. Not that there won't be hundreds of thousands of people making that claim should India win.

Late on Friday night there was no-one selling a ticket for less than 1 lakh - 100,000 Indian Rupees (over US$2,200). And this to go and sit in 35-degree heat with no alcoholic beverages for sale, but only once you've walked a couple of kilometres to get to the ground because the roads are closed off, then stood in a two-hour queue waiting for the most invasive frisking of your life.

Even the journalists - or at least those of us who got a match ticket - waited an hour outside the ground before our equipment was put through a scanner and our coins donated to the Mumbai Police.

Not that we're in any position to complain of course, when there are almost 14 million expectant people around Mumbai wishing they could be inside the Wankhede on the day when India could win their first World Cup in 28 years.