India vs Pakistan – the perfect final for what has been an entertaining, impossible-to-predict ICC Champions Trophy 2017. One team has arrived in this final by living up to the expectations and the other by surprising everyone.
This will be the proverbial bat vs ball battle, with Pakistan's bowlers, who got them into this final with three brilliant performances in a row, looking to trump India's world-class batsmen.
Pakistan looked like they would make a premature exit in this Champions Trophy, when they lost to India with barely a fight. But then came the turnaround, inspired by their bowlers.
They completely outplayed South Africa, as the Proteas' penchant to choke in ICC tournaments came to the fore, before the bowlers came into their own again, against Sri Lanka.
The batsmen nearly threw away all the hard work done by their bowlers when they made a muddle of the chase, before some help from the Sri Lanka fielders helped them through to the semifinals.
In that final-four match came Pakistan's best performance yet, and that too without one of their key bowlers.
As Mohammad Amir sat out the final due to a back spasm, Hasan Ali, Junaid Khan and Amir's replacement Rumman Raees went about dismantling the England batting lineup, a lineup that had looked infallible coming into the semifinal.
To make Pakistan feel even better, their batsmen chased down the target with considerable ease, giving them the confidence they will need in the Champions Trophy final.
India also won three out of four matches to set this game up with Pakistan, but the path they took was a little different, and it hasn't been entirely about the bowlers.
The first game was a walk in the park for India, which is quite impressive considering this was a match against Pakistan. Their batsmen, despite having to contend with a couple of rain delays, put on a big score on the board, before the bowlers completely shut down any hopes of the Pakistan batsmen chasing down the score.
With that win, India were expected to ease into the semifinals by beating Sri Lanka, but they received a jolt, and a proper one at that, when the Lankans chased down 321 with absolute ease. That match was the only one where the bowlers failed to find their rhythm and cope with the pressure when the runs started to leak.
The India bowlers, smarting from that performance against Sri Lanka, bounced back in style by bundling out South Africa for a low score, setting their batsmen up for a simple chase.
And then, on Thursday, came another convincing performance from India – the bowlers were brilliant, restricting Bangladesh to just 264, while the batsmen were even better, chasing down that total with nine wickets and 9.5 overs to spare.
Another perfect bat and ball performance will be the plan for India. The batsmen, in particular, will need to carry their form into this final, because they will be put under pressure by the in-form Pakistan bowlers, and how they handle that pressure will decide the outcome of this big game.
ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final: India vs Pakistan.
When: Sunday, June 18.
What time: 10.30am BST, 3pm IST, 2.30pm Pakistan time, 5.30am ET.
Where: The Oval in London.
Which channel (TV guide): India: DD National, Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1. Pakistan: PTV and Star Sports. UK: Sky Sports 2. New Zealand: Sky Sport. Australia: Fox Sports. South Africa: SuperSport 2. USA: Willow TV. Middle East: OSN Sports Cricket. Singapore: Star Cricket.
