All eyes on today's finale of Independence Cup series

LAHORE: All eyes are on the thrilling final of T20 Independence Cup three-match series, would be played today at the same venue of Qaddafi stadium, which has gained the status of a finale.

The event has its own significance as the World XI is a galaxy of top-notch cricketers drawn from seven countries, whereas Pakistan team is the winner of the Champions Trophy.

Both the rival captains have expressed their resolve to win the third and the last match of the series, which stands locked at 1-1 after the home side beat the World XI by 20 runs in the opener. The touring side won the following tie by seven wickets.

“We will be playing the last game with a similar mind set as the second game to achieve our set goals.” Said World XI captain Faf du Plessis.

“It is not going to be easy at all for us as Pakistan team has the added advantage of home ground and crowd and it has also the ability to fight back due to some good players in the side and we have to overcome all these challenges,” he added.

While Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmad said, “It is a very important match for us and we will be going all out to win”. He asked the team to show consistency, which will be only possible when all the players exhibit their best game.

Sarfraz asked the team members to lift the level of their overall game, specially fielding, to save runs, and called upon the Pakistan pacers to bowl with more vigour and accuracy to shatter the confidence of the opponents’ experienced batting line-up.

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has said his team would have to be more disciplined to seize the historic Twenty20 International series against the World XI.

Arthur said Pakistan’s inexperienced and young team had failed to keep its discipline in the last five overs on Wednesday.“It was disappointing that we could not defend a 175-run target,” said Arthur. “We lost our discipline in the last five overs and during that phase, a crucial catch was dropped,” he added.

Pakistan (possible): 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 6 Imad Wasim, 7 Faheem Ashraf, 8 Shadab Khan, 9 Sohail Khan, 10 Hasan Ali/Usman Shinwari, 11 Rumman Raees

Very popular in Pakistan, Sammy's omission from the playing XI in the second T20I came as a surprise, and he might start again. George Bailey is the only World-XI player yet to get a game and could find himself thrown in for the decider.

World XI (possible): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Tim Paine (wk), 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 Thisara Perera, 6 David Miller/George Bailey, 7 Darren Sammy, 8 Ben Cutting, 9 Samuel Badree, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Imran Tahir

Pitch and conditions

The pitch will play no different to the first two games, and another high-scoring contest is on the cards. The second game was slightly disrupted by windy conditions, but nothing of the sort is expected for the finale.