Hello and welcome to our coverage of what is a juicy opening match for both India and Pakistan.
In one sense, it might not be a bad idea for these two teams to get this clash out of the way early because emotions always run high when these two old foes clash.
And it gives both sides a chance to recover should they lose this game. It isn't like the Asia Cup, where Pakistan knocked India out of the tournament.
In other news, the Netherlands have smashed their way to 193 from 13.5 overs to beat Ireland and quality for the Super-10s. They hit an astounding 19 sixes, a record for a T20 innings.
It was carnage on the field and Ireland could not do nothing to halt it.
Stephan Myburgh got the ball rolling with 63 from 23 balls. His fifty took 18 balls, the second-fastest in any format in international cricket.
Then Tom Cooper slammed 45 from 15 balls to make sure the innings did not lose an iota of momentum the captain, Wesley Barresi, finished things off with a couple of sixes at the end.
The toss is about 30 minutes away now.
MS Dhoni will be hoping his luck holds out at the toss - he won every single toss on the tour of New Zealand.
Mohandas Menon has some fun stats while we wait.
Something to chew on while we wait for the game.
Ravi Shastri has the pitch report for us.
He says it looks to be an absolute beauty - nice and hard. The only grass is dead grass.
He thinks 150 to 160 is a good score because of the dew factor.
Still, a good surface says Shastri.
Manjrekar disagrees, though. Saying bowling first means you get a dry ball and there will be something there for the spinners.
Rameez Raja also thinks batting second is the way to go.
Manjrekar reckons India should go all in with the spinners on this track in these conditions. Given the tribulations of India's seamers in recent times, that is worth a punt.
Shastri thinks India should not tinker with their top order.
If it was up to him, he would pick three spinners and give one of them the new ball. However, he doesn't think Dhoni has enough confidence in Amit Mishra to go down that route.
Dhoni has won the toss and will bowl first.
India is playing with an extra spinner in this game.
At times, having spinners can be one-dimensional but we have spinners who are different in their own ways.
He reckons the pitch is a bit on the softer side (Shastri thought it was rock hard) but won't change much over 40 overs.
Hafeez: We have good strength in our bowling. Have picked Kamran and Shehzad as the openers.
India are playing Amit Mishra. Pakistan are playing Bilawal Bhatti. Clearly spin is on everyone's mind.
Pakistan XI: Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Akmal†, Mohammad Hafeez*, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Bilawal Bhatti, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan.
India XI: RG Sharma, S Dhawan, SK Raina, Yuvraj Singh, V Kohli, MS Dhoni*†, R Ashwin, RA Jadeja, A Mishra, B Kumar, Mohammed Shami.
There will be a lot of spin bowled in this game.
The players are walking out now for the pre-match anthems.
The Pakistan openers are striding to the wicket now.
Mahone is clearly an Indian fan.
R Ashwin has the new ball. He would have been my pick too (not that anyone cares who my pick would be).
13.95 - @KNCBcricket 's run rate of 13.95 per over is the highest in a T20I innings of matches with a full 20-over allocation. Freedom. #wt20by optajim via twitter 3/21/2014 12:22:04 PM
I don't think it will be too long before an Associate team wins a T20 WC.by sidvee via twitter 3/21/2014 12:22:11 PM
