CT25 Final to be Played at IND vs Pak Pitch: India and New Zealand will be competing in the upcoming Champions Trophy Final on Sunday, March 9, in Dubai.
India are in strong form, having won all their four games so far, all of which were played in Dubai. In the semi-final, they defeated Steve Smith’s Australia by four wickets in a thrilling encounter that went down to the wire.
New Zealand, too, are looking solid, having suffered only one loss—to India in the group stage—in four outings, and are coming off a thumping 50-run victory over South Africa in the semi-final in Lahore.
India are likely to play the same XI that has featured in the last two games. This means that India are expected to continue with their four-pronged spin attack of Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Varun Chakravarthy, who took a five-wicket haul against New Zealand in their group stage encounter and in the semi-final against Australia dismissed Travis Head, India’s chief nemesis over the last couple of years.
CT25 Final to be Played at IND vs Pak Pitch
India’s four games in Dubai so far were all played on different surfaces, according to a report in Cricbuzz, but the IND vs NZ ICC Champions Trophy final is set to be played on the pitch that was used in the India vs Pakistan game. In that game, India restricted Pakistan to 241 and chased the total down with 7.3 overs to spare and six wickets in hand, with Virat Kohli creaming a terrific century.
The pitch in the IND vs NZ final will also be slow and sluggish, offering grip and turn to spinners. Batting is going to be challenging here once again. While in the India vs Australia semi-final, India managed to chase down 265 in the 49th over, a first-innings score of 260 in the India vs New Zealand Champions Trophy final might prove to be a winning total for either team.
Indian bowlers, in particular their spinners, have utilized Dubai’s slow and low pitches effectively.
India’s batting coach, Sitanshu Kotak, praised the Indian batsmen who have chased down targets three times in three run chases in this competition so far.
Kotak said, “While the wicket does change a bit, its overall nature hasn’t shifted much. However, the batting has been excellent. And secondly, we’ve been fortunate to get solid starts, and on occasions when those starts were lacking, the middle order stepped up.”
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