June 17, 2017
LONDON: Pakistan’s strategy to overpower India in the Champions Trophy finale on Sunday is simple: target the opponent’s top order, head coach Mickey Arthur has revealed.
Pakistan bowlers have "no option" but to attack India's explosive top three and expose their middle order, Arthur told cricket.com.au ahead of the big day.
"We have to (attack), we've got no option," he said. "We've got to try and make that new ball really work for us. We've got to try and get into them."
“Their middle order haven't had massive hits, they haven't batted much under pressure of late. So we've got to try and put them under extreme pressure particularly by knocking their top order over. If we can do that, we've got a real chance of getting to their underbelly," he said.
India’s top three batsmen, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and skipper Virat Kohli, have been dominant in taking their team to victory in the group and knockout matches, having scored more than 250 runs each in four matches. But that has meant the middle order, comprising of Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya, have barely been required throughout the tournament.
For Pakistan pacers, who have been lethal especially in the middle and last overs in the tournament, the Indian middle order could be just the Achilles Heel the team wants.
16 of the 28 wickets Pakistan bowlers have taken in their past three wins have come in the second Power Play between the 10th and 40th overs.
"Tactically we'd always spoken about our guys wanting to express themselves with the ball and wanting to attack," Arthur said.
"(The second Power Play) historically has been a bit of a dead period where you're just trying to squeeze and contain the opposition. But what happens is you just allow the opposition to play, they keep so many wickets in hand that scores are getting too big at the back end.”
"So we decided that we really wanted to attack those overs. That for us was key and we gave our bowlers the freedom to do that. We've got the ball to reverse swing, which is good for us because that's a massive weapon," the coach said.
Arthur was also all praise for captain Sarfraz Ahmed.
"Our execution has been great and we've attacked," Arthur said. "The captain has kept slips and put catchers in attacking positions and it's worked for us.”
“He's very positive. He's an aggressive captain and he wants to take wickets. That's how we want to play and I think that's how you have to play one-day cricket now. He encapsulates all that."
