KARACHI, June 25: Pakistan’s real test of nerves in the Asia Cup cricket tournament will come on Thursday when they face India in the last Group ‘B’ fixture here at the National Stadium.

Billed as the ‘clash of the titans’, the contest promises to be the toughest challenge for the arch-rivals after they scored facile wins over minnows Hong Kong in their opening matches.

Statistically, hosts Pakistan enjoy a psychological edge over the Indians since they have emerged winners 67 times besides tasting 44 defeats in 115 One-day Internationals since the very first encounter between the two traditional rivals in Quetta on Oct 1, 1978.

In the recent triangular tournament held in Bangladesh, Pakistan succumbed to their most humiliating defeat against India, who won the league round tie by 140 runs. However, Shoaib Malik’s men hit back with vengeance four days later to beat Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side by 25 runs in the enthralling final.

Pakistan also have a slight edge over their neighbouring opponents in the Asia Cup history, having secured three wins against two defeats while two games in the 1997 tournament in Colombo were abandoned because of rain.

In the last Asia Cup meeting between them at Colombo’s R. Premadasa Stadium in 2004, a brilliant all-round performance by current Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik (143 and two wickets) inspired his team to a 59-run victory.

Team winning on Thursday would be in an ideal situation to dictate terms in the Super League stage, that starts here from Saturday, because both Pakistan and India are due to square off again next Wednesday. And if both of them succeed in reaching the July 6 final, they could be taking on each other for the third time in this tournament.

India rested three of their key players ahead of the Pakistan game with vice-captain Yuvraj Singh, all-rounder Irfan Pathan and paceman Ishant Sharma all sitting out the Hong Kong tie.

Pakistan, meanwhile, will be hoping that their middle-order batting doesn’t repeat their unexpected collapse against Hong Kong the other day.

Vice-captain Misbah-ul-Haq and hard-hitting all-rounder Shahid Afridi, in particular, are in desperate need of big runs at the moment.

Malik has admitted Pakistan are under pressure to live up to the expectations of their supporters while his counterpart Dhoni thinks it would be a great game if both sides play to their potential on the given day.

A good turnout is expected after the two Hong Kong matches were played in near empty stadium.Teams (from):

PAKISTAN: Shoaib Malik (captain), Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Shahid Afridi, Sarfraz Ahmed, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Mansoor Amjad, Nasir Jamshed, Wahab Riaz, Saeed Ajmal.

INDIA: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, R.P. Singh, Piyush Chawla, Manpreet Gony, Pragyan Ojha.

Umpires: Tony Hill (New Zealand) and Brian Jerling (South Africa).

TV umpire: A.F.M. Akhtaruddin Shaheen (Bangladesh).

Match referee: Alan Hurst (Australia).