Arch-rivals all set for The Oval battle

Pakistan, India play final of ICC Champions Trophy today

KARACHI: The world will come to a standstill when Pakistan take on India in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in front of a packed Oval today [Sunday].

For the two giants of world cricket, it ends just how it started — against each other with more than a billion eyeballs assessing every single action of theirs.

In the build-up to that game, just like the build-up to this one, both captains and camps insisted time and again that this is just another game. Everyone – including those saying it – knows it is not. This is the greatest rivalry in the world; and in Kennington, it might come to a head.

As important as winning the Champions Trophy is, there is a lot more than just silverware at stake for both sides. For Pakistan, it is a chance to avenge the humiliating 124-run defeat in the opening match and to regain the lead in head-to-head clashes in the Champions Trophy. That defeat in Edgbaston tied things at 2-2.



It is also a chance to respond, in no uncertain terms, to the criticism the team has received in the past couple of years, to all those back home who never gave this team a snowball’s chance in hell and to all those who are still doubting the team. Having already made history by reaching the Champions Trophy final for the first time, Sarfraz Ahmed and his men know they have little to lose and all to gain as the tournament’s lowest ranked team prepares to play the final.

For two-time winners India, the match represents a chance to underline their recent superiority over their neighbours. The defending champions know defeat will be seen as unforgivable failure back home — Pakistan, despite all their superb cricket in the last three games, are the lowest ranked side in the tournament and go into the match decidedly as underdogs.

In openers Shikhar Dhawan (317 runs) and Rohit Sharma (304 runs), India have the tournament’s top two run-getters, while skipper Virat Kohli isn’t that far behind with 253. Kohli also boasts the tournament’s best batting average – a scarcely believable 253 – since the only time he has gotten out in the entire tournament has been when he was dismissed on zero against Sri Lanka.

But Kohli knows it will be folly to take a win against Pakistan as given. The Men in Green have once again risen to their tag of being completely unpredictable and come into the final on the back of three incredible victories – the most impressive of which has to be the eight-wicket trouncing of tournament favourites and hosts England in the semi-finals.



As always, this upturn in fortunes rides on the back of some superb bowling performances, especially by the pacers. Hasan Ali has truly risen to the occasion and comes into the final as the tournament’s best bowler, with 10 wickets to his name already. For context, that is as much as India’s top two wicket-takers put together.

Hasan has been superbly supported by the likes of Junaid Khan and Mohammad Amir but today will mark an acid test for a bowling attack that has razed all comers into the ground since that defeat to India.

With so much on the line and such fine margins separating glory from despair, it is one of sports’ oldest clichés that bears repeating at this point: whoever handles the pressure better wins.