It's arch rivals India vs Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final at The Oval

What a Champions Trophy is this in this beautiful English Summer!! No one ever thought before the start of the tournament that three sub-continent team will be in the semis!! There is no Australia, no NewZealand & not even the host England! 

India was one of the favourites among maximum of the official commentators of this tournament. They are in sublime form. All the batters are getting runs when needed & the performance of the bowlers are also clinical when it was required against South Africa! In all the ICC tournaments, you will find a match between arch rivals India & Pakistan to generate higher revenue as the biggest chunk of audiences come form this two countries. And Pakistan made sure that Indian channels shouldn't stop airing "mauka mauka" advertisements & India had absolutely outplayed Pakistan in the league stage. Since then Pakistan has played unpredictable cricket by beating strong teams like South Africa, Srilanka in the group stages & England in the semifinals. They have showed character in crunching situations. The game against Srilanka was very crucial to qualify for the semis. Pakistan were 137/6 to chase 237. But captain of this Pakistan side is a cool customer. Sarfaraz played a brilliant innings along with tailender Md. Amir who also played sensibly to make sure that Pakistan qualifies for the semis.

Now all are eyeing for the big final on Sunday. And what else can the fans expect? Even ICC & television broadcasters will be very happy to have India & Pakistan in the finals. The Oval will be full house & the TV viewership will be at it's peak on that day.

To analyse both the teams, India is far more formidable side & many of their players were in the team when they won 2013 Champion's Trophy. So they are accustomed to the pressure of big games & they had delivered the best for Team India. Top three Indian batsmen are in brilliant form. Sikhar Dhawan has made it clear that he loves big stages. He played well in earlier big ICC events & this time also he is the highest run scorer for the team & the 2nd one on the list is Rohit Sharma!! India has lost only 1 wicket during power plays in the 4 matches that they played in this tournament so far. They are a bit slow at the start, at least stats say this but in the semis against Bangladesh, they scored more than 6 an over in first 10. Then obviously you have the captain Kohli who is also batting brilliantly. Yuvraj, Dhoni were among the runs during group stages when they got their chances. India has a deep batting line-up till number 9 who can score runs when needed. Indian bowlers have also bowled decently. Jasprit Bumrah is very accurate & economical during the death overs. Bhuvaneswar is also giving some crucial break-troughs. 

Pakistan has changed their game plan after that crushing defeat against India. They made some changes- brought Junaid Khan back, Fakhar Zaman in the top order has given them the fire power to attack the oppositions early on. He, along with Azhar Ali has worked well so far. Their middle order is a bit shaky at the moment but the experience of Shoib Malik & Prof. Hafeez can be helpful if they click on the given day. And captain Sarfaraz has showed great temperament. The big strength of this Pakistan side is their bowling during the middle overs. And Hassan Ali is the go to man for this. He is the highest wicket taker so far in the tournament. This Pakistan side has got wickets in crucial moments hassan Ali is the person who has got some reverse swing as well. Rumman Raees who made his debut against England in the semi final also bowled well. Basically it should be contest between Indian batsmen & Pakistan bowlers.

Now, whatever we can write here, there is no script written for the big final. And the best team on the given day who can play good blend of cricket & can stay calm & focused will win the game. At this stage, mental strength of the cricketers are very important. Hope to see a great contest.

But most importantly, hope to see that "mauka mauka" ad continues.😄

Please watch the predictions of Saurav Ganguly & Harbhajan Singh for the big final below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53zIkHPEeFM

Eden Gardens to host high voltage game

As cricket lover & if you are from the sub-continent, can you imagine that a India vs Pakistan cricket match will be cancelled just because of security reasons? You are right. No it won't. So here it is. The WCT20 between the arch-rivals India & Pakistan on 19th March'2016 has been shifted from beautiful Dharamshala to the one of the greatest cricket grounds in the world - Eden Gardens.

Now as the controversy had created some days earlier with respect to this game, Saurav Ganguly took no time to get the opportunity of convincing the authorities to conduct the game at Kolkata. And as a CAB president, you should expect him to do so.

But the context is very important here. At this very ground, both the team have played 11 matches in all forms cricket where Pakistan won 5, India 1 & 5 matches ended in a draw.

Statistics on all World Cup matches speak differently. Where Pakistan team never beat India till date. And this will make Saurav Ganguly happy too. Because he knows about the Eden Gardens crowd better. There was big expectations in the Bengal domestic circuit as Pakistan was supposed to play one warm-up game against Bengal but as they came late now they will play only one warm-up game against Srilanka before going into the final tournament.

Now a lot depends on Mr. Prabir Mukherjee, the veteran fiercely proud custodian of Eden Gardens for last 40 years. But unlike earlier, he is saying that this wicket will be a perfect T20 one where 200 runs can be scored in an innings!

Let's enjoy the beautiful game of cricket. Come on It's India vs Pakistan. And all 66000 seats will be filled. And the noise will be electrifying.

- Suvadro