Pakistan aims to expose India’s middle order

Get early wickets, attack India’s unexposed middle order. That is Pakistan’s strategy for the Champions Trophy final at The Oval on Sunday, Mickey Arthur revealed.

In the tournament so far, India has posted scores of 319 and 321 while batting first and chased down targets of 192 and 265 with eight and nine wickets in hand respectively in its next two matches. Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are among the top five run-scorers of the competition with Dhawan leading the pack, but the flip side of their form is that the middle order hasn’t had much to do.

“We've got to look at our strengths, and our strengths has been the fact that we've been able to take wickets and we've been able to take wickets consistently through the middle periods,” Arthur said on Saturday. “If we can get amongst them with the new ball, we can expose the middle order that hasn't batted much this competition, so that's pretty much our aim and focus.

“We've got to play to our strengths, and our strength certainly is with the ball. We can restrict them or defend against them. We have the attack to do that, providing we can strike upfront.”

Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, echoed Arthur’s views saying it was imperative for Pakistan to look for wickets against a strong Indian batting unit.

“You cannot win the match if you don’t take wickets,” he said. “It’s very important to strike in the middle overs in 50-over cricket. India’s batting is very strong, so we’ll try to get them early.

“We have been playing attacking cricket after the India match. While bowling also, we have got wickets when we attacked. As for batting, the batsmen have come into form. So we will try to play attacking cricket in every situation. The more positive cricket we play, the better results we will get.”

Pakistan will feel confident of executing its plan given its performance in the last three matches. Along with India, Pakistan has been the most successful team in the middle phases of the game, having picked up 18 wickets between overs 11 and 40 in the competition.

Pakistan’s only poor day on the field came against India when the sides met in Birmingham. India posted 319 for 3 in 48 overs, but it could have been different had Pakistan held on to a couple of catches.

“I did say after the India game that that was an aberration,” said Arthur. “That was something we hadn't prepared for. We knew how hard the guys had prepared. We knew where all the guys were technically in their games. So what we've produced after that doesn't come as any surprise because that's how we trained, and that's what we worked at.

“It was very disappointing to see that go wrong in the Indian game. But we've closed the chapter on that. That was an aberration. We're now moving forward. And the guys have played really well. And they've played exactly as I thought they would play because we've trained properly and trained well.”

Arthur said he was amazed with the way Pakistan bounced back, but stressed that he was least surprised by the dream run since that “aberration”.

“I don't think we've exceeded expectations at all,” he said. “We came here very, very firmly of the opinion that we wanted to come here and win it, and that has been our chat all the time. It's been used numerous times but we had the mantra, ‘We wanted to go to London.’ Well, we got to London and we want to go one step further now.

“It's been great to get to a final after where we were at, and credit goes to the players. They've been outstanding, the way they've prepared, the way they dragged themselves off the canvas after the beating at Edgbaston, was amazing. They've been really special in the way that they've bought into the concept that we wanted them to buy into and the brand of cricket, and they've done exceptionally well at that.”

They certainly have, leaving Pakistan within touching distance of its maiden Champions Trophy title. A title victory would be the icing on the cake, but also an affirmation that Pakistan is on the right track for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

“I just know it'll mean a massive amount to them,” he said. “The guys have been special. I can't praise them enough. After the defeat against India, we had some honest conversation, and the guys took it on the chin and dragged themselves up from the canvas exceptionally well. For us it'll just be almost a clincher for us in terms of the brand of cricket we want to play, where we want to take the team.

“The focus after tomorrow is certainly going to be on the 2019 World Cup. It's going to be creating a squad, it's going to be creating some depth so that we can come here in 2019 and give it a shake. But also buying into the way we want to play our game, buying into the way we want to play our cricket. This will just be a nice confirmer for the players that we're definitely on the right track.”