Pakistan looking forward to meeting India again in the final

Rohit and Bumrah star as India cruise past Pakistan with ease

India slumped from 155/2 to 191 all out in Ahmedabad after being put in to bat. And tasked with defending such a gettable total, the Pakistani attack weren’t able to take enough early wickets to trouble India’s strong batting lineup.

The defeat was the eighth consecutive loss for Pakistan against their neighbours in men’s Cricket World Cup history, but Mickey Arthur is hoping for a chance to make it ninth time lucky in next month’s final.

“This Indian team is a very, very good cricket team. I think they're very well led by Rahul (Dravid) and Rohit (Sharma).

“I think they've got all bases covered and I'm looking forward to meeting them again in the final.”

The stunning stats behind India’s win over Pakistan

Pakistan remain firmly in contention for the top four spots and a resulting semi-final place, despite their seven-wicket defeat.

The heavy nature of the less means that England would leapfrog Pakistan into fourth in the table should they beat Afghanistan on Sunday, but with six matches remaining for Pakistan there is still plenty of time left for them to recover from this setback.

“We're two from three now,” Arthur said “We've played well in patches in this tournament, but I don't think we've hit our straps yet, and that's the exciting thing for me.

“The key is remaining calm, staying focused, concentrating on what our next opposition is, getting the strategies right for that, getting the team balance right, and then the next focus is the next game for us.”

Pakistan’s slow scoring rate in the top order has been a subject of debate for some time, and none of the top four scored at a run-a-ball against India.

But Arthur says that the top order’s scoring rate was not necessarily the issue in this game, and that Pakistan have their established gameplan for a reason.

“We set ourselves up as a 330 team, that's our message, that's where we set ourselves up,” he explained.

“I've said there's two ways to skin a cat – some teams come out firing up front and take it on and they have the personnel to do that," Arthur added.

"We've got the personnel to build and build and build and make sure that we keep that momentum going through the innings so that we can cash in at the back end. That's been our method.

“We've had success by taking it deep and then cashing in at the back end. That's been our style, that's been our brand, but we didn't play the 'Pakistan Way' tonight, and that was the disappointing aspect of it for me.”

Pakistan have time to get their mojo back, with Arthur and his players having almost a week until their next match, which is against Australia in Bengaluru on Friday.