My Sports India: Match Previews, TV Channel timings, and important sports news stories

Ancient history favours Pakistan, but more modern events give India the edge going into Saturday’s encounter. Pakistan have usually fared better in ODI finals between these traditional rivals, winning five of the seven tournaments where the two sides met in the title clash - but the last of those was in 1999. India have had the upper hand in recent matches, winning five of their last seven games and with their rampaging top-order firing, have steamrollered their way to the final. A victory on Saturday would add to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s growing reputation as an ODI captain, having already tasted success at home against Pakistan and in the CB series in Australia.

On the other hand, Shoaib Malik is yet to win a ODI series against significant opposition since beating Sri Lanka last May. His side’s 12-game winning streak was emphatically snapped by a 140-run defeat in the league match against India, prompting a stinging and public rebuke from PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf. While this is a battle between arch-rivals, the frequency of matches between the two sides has taken the edge off this game. As Shahid Afridi said, “some of the jadoo (magic) has gone out of the atmosphere and build-up.” A win here, though, will be the perfect tonic ahead of the Asia Cup.

India: (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rohit Sharma, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Praveen Kumar, 11 Ishant Sharma

Pakistan: (probable) 1 Salman Butt, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Shoaib Malik (capt), 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9, Umar Gul, 10 Wahab Riaz / Sohail Khan, 11 Iftikhar Anjum.

Catch the Kitply cup final live on Neo Cricket on Saturday the 14th of June at 14.30 IST.

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