Forget group win over Pakistan, Kohli warns before final

The Oval pitch should be more favourable for batsmen but India, who have beaten Pakistan in eight of their 10 World Cup and Champions Trophy meetings, will not be complacent.

However, while Kohli’s India are seeking their own island of “calm” to facilitate decision-making under pressure, Pakistan are thriving on “excitement’, according to Arthur, making their group strategies polar opposites.”The guys are genuinely excited”.

Personally, as a cricketer, I feel India are the overwhelming favourites, but as a Pakistani, I would like to see Pakistan win the title.

Earlier put in to bat, the Mashrafe Mortaza-led side put in a below par score. Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Kohli have dominated the bowling of nearly all the teams.

Then, Junaid Khan almost picks up Kohli as well, inducing the outside edge of the India captain with a ball that was slanted across, but Babar Azam, in the slips, drops the catch, failing to hold on, moving to his right.

“The India game was an aberration”, Arthur said in Saturday’s pre-match press conference. Soon the back-up off-spinner turned the match upside down by removing both Tamim and Mushfiqur to leave the Bangladesh batting in disarray. They would certainly be hoping that for once the law of averages takes their side. Dhoni seems to have great faith in the cricketing acumen of Jadhav and it is working for Kohli. One half expected India, the defending champions, to make it all the way to the final, while the other half gave eighth-ranked Pakistan not even a ghost of a chance. Some teams might not have the best starts, and they come back amazingly, which Pakistan has done.

The buzz for the final has been enormous in England, too, where there is a large population from both the nations.

Spectators rushed into the middle of the ground and dug up the pitch during the first event and cheered India’s defeat by raising anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans in the second event.

Going into the match, India would be high on confidence having comprehensively defeated their Asian neighbour by 124 runs in the group stage.

Bowling wise the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya have also come to the party.

The spin duo of Imad Wasim and Mohammad Hafeez alongside medium-pacer Rumman Raees – who made his debut in the semi-finals – will look to provide depth and variation to the Pakistan bowling line-up. For Pakistan, who lost to India in their tournament opener, this is the first entry into the finals of the coveted 50-overs tournament. Shoaib Malik tries to keep Pakistan’s hopes alive along with captain Sarfraz Ahmed, but once that partnership is broken, India scythe through the rest of the batting lineup to retain their title. Many berated him for his tasteless remarks pointing to some sort of match-fixing. As soon as the picture was posted on the social media platform, it went viral with fans from both India and Pakistan going gaga over the post.

Kohli does not want his side to be “over excited” before the summit showdown while Sarfraz admitted that his team is “excited and motivated to perform well”.