Today’s match will decide who qualifies for the second semi-final in Southampton. It presents the teams with something of a puzzle. Recent encounters have been dominated by two powerful batting line-ups, with every innings in the past nine games topping 240 except the last match in Holland four weeks ago, when rain reduced the overs from 50 to 33. Pakistan still scored a run-per-ball 192.
In six of these games, the side batting first won as bowlers short on penetration found more success defending big totals.
But the quandary is that the Champions Trophy, being played so late in the English season, with 10.15am starts, has favoured the bowlers, particularly those given first use of the conditions, and whoever wins the toss this morning, Sourav Ganguly or Inzamam-ul-Haq, will surely opt to field first and ask his pace bowlers, for once, to bring him some wickets.
This may give Pakistan a slight advantage, as their new-ball attack of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami possess greater experience of English conditions, both having played here this summer for Durham and Kent respectively. India’s pace attack is less experienced, destructive and disciplined, though they do have in-form spinner Harbhajan Singh by way of compensation.
India’s batting, moreover, has lost some of its lustre. Sachin Tendulkar is out of the tournament because of tennis elbow, and Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, two potentially explosive hitters, have lost their touch. There will be a lot of pressure on VVS Laxman, who has scored four one-day centuries this year, Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Pakistan also hold a psychological edge, having beaten India in one-dayers in Sri Lanka and Holland since losing on home soil, and they possess perhaps the two best allrounders on either side, Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Malik.
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John Wright, India’s coach, conceded that the advantage lay elsewhere. “They (Pakistan) are a well-balanced side and may have a slight edge. We have to do something special.” Bob Woolmer, his opposite number, said: “I find this Pakistan team very disciplined and captained by a terrific leader. I tell my players not to worry about the pressure.”
PROBABLE TEAMS
PAKISTAN: Yasir Hameed, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yousuf Youhana, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Moin Khan, Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar
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INDIA: S Ganguly (capt), V Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, M Kaif, R Dravid, K Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, I Pathan, A Agarkar, A Nehra