India versus Pakistan has become the rage of this sporting season, and fans are holding their breath as two of the most famed rivalries will breath again this Sunday, as Pakistan takes on India in cricket as well as hockey. The cricket teams will face off against each other in the final of the Champions Trophy at the Oval in England. The Champions Trophy is the second most prestigious tournament in ODI cricket after the World Cup, and the match is slated to be one of the most viewed sporting events of this year. The hockey national teams will be clashing in the semi-finals of the Hockey World League(HWL) in London.
The Indian cricket team creamed off Bangladesh by 9 wickets in the semi-finals at Edgbaston in Birmingham to enter the finals of the Champions Trophy for the fourth consecutive time. The Men in Blue have been at the top of their game for quite a long time now, with Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli scoring a load of runs to propel the Indians into the finals. They will be facing off against the unlikely finalists Pakistan, who struggled against India in their opening match, losing by a whopping 124 runs, but went on to win the rest of their matches, including their last match against favorites England where they hammered the hosts by 8 wickets and 77 balls to spare. Fans will look forward to a hotly contested encounter, and the stalwarts in the Indian batting lineup will have to guard against the battery of pace bowlers that have helped Pakistan stage a comeback into the tournament.
The hockey teams once used to have a legendary rivalry, fed by the enormous success of the subcontinental teams in international competition. However, each of the team’s fortunes has been on the wane in the last two decades. Nevertheless, the Indian boys will hope to do well. They defeated Scotland 4-1 in their first match, and will lock horns with Canada today, meeting Pakistan on Sunday.
