By the end of today, either India or Pakistan will have earned a place in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka, and MS Dhoni did his team a favour by winning the toss and choosing to bat in perfect conditions in Mohali. After all the hype, the time for talking is almost over, but Dhoni still needed to explain India's strange decision to leave R Ashwin out to make room for Ashish Nehra.
"Pakistan are very good players of spin bowling," Dhoni said by way of explanation. The pitch was expected to offer more for the seamers than the slow men, but the inclusion of Nehra, who has taken just one wicket from two matches in the tournament and hasn't played in two and a half weeks, is a major gamble.
Pakistan, though, preferred to trust the same line-up that accounted for West Indies so easily in their quarter-final, meaning there was no room for Shoaib Akhtar. "It will not be easy against the spinners," the Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said. "The ball will definitely take some grip." At least his bowlers won't have to contend with the dew that could play a part later in the evening.
India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 7 Suresh Raina, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Munaf Patel.
Pakistan 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Wahab Riaz, 11 Saeed Ajmal
