The final of the ICC Champions Trophy sees two age old rivals going at it for the title as the defending champions India host Pakistan for the second time in the tournament. Both sides will be all out to win another major tournament in front of what is sure to be a packed house on a scorching day at The Oval.
Both sides came through surprisingly one sided semi-finals and fully deserve to meet in this title match which will hopefully be a cracking conclusion to a tournament which has lacked excellent matches.
Pakistan
If you go back a couple of matches to when Sarfraz’s mishit shot was heading for Thisara Perera in Pakistan’s final group match against Sri Lanka you could be forgiven for thinking Pakistan were done for but Perera dropped it, Pakistan won that match and they haven’t looked back since. They will be full of confidence heading in here.
One reason why Pakistan have made it this far has been the excellent skills of their bowling attack. They have played South Africa, Sri Lanka and England in their last three matches and haven’t conceded 250 to any of them and that is a mighty fine effort on these wickets and these grounds in this tournament.
India
Apart from one innings with the ball India have been near enough perfect in this tournament and they have had a swagger in their last two matches which exudes the confidence of a side who knows how to win major tournaments. They need to guard against overconfidence but clearly they feel they are going to be hard to beat.
India’s batting has looked at ease in this tournament. There is every reason to suggest they would have scored 300+ in every match that they have played should they have needed to. While that is a compliment to their batting it is also a big rap for their bowlers too because in three of their matches they’ve not needed to make that many.
Team News
Pakistan will be pleased to have Mohammad Amir back for this match. He missed the semi-final through injury but has recovered and is set to replace Rumman Raees in the side.
India have a doubt over Ravi Ashwin although it is debatable whether he would have played anyway. Umesh Yadav starred in the first match between these two and could take his place.
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Betting
I’m looking forward to what should be a belting final. I’ve had my fingers in just about every India pie going in this tournament and I’m in a position to collect on many things. I’m already on India for the tournament so I’m not going to back them again but I’m not opposing them either.
I will go with a couple of bets though. The first of those is the boundaries. This final is on a brand new pitch and you only have to look at the two Royal London semi-finals in the last two days to see that scoring conditions in England are good currently. Nothing is going to change here in that regard. India are batting brilliantly at the minute but Pakistan just went very well against England so I’m expecting the boundaries on flow on a ground which has small boundaries and a lightning fast outfield.
Sarfraz Ahmed has been in good nick in this tournament and at 10/1 he is nicely enough priced for me to try him to top score again. He is a real tough performer and Pakistan might well need that at some point in this match. He has won one game for them with the bat in this competition and he’ll be an instant hero if he wins this for them. The top two aside nobody has contributed massively with the bat in this tournament so at a double figure price the Pakistan captain is worthy of support.
Tips
Back Over 58.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back it here:
Back S.Ahmed Top Pakistan Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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