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India, Pak won't reach ICC Champions final: Bookies
The Indo-Pak encounter might have sold out months before but neither team is touted to reach the final.
The India-Pakistan encounter might have sold out months before but neither team is bookmakers' favourite to reach the final of the ICC Champions Trophy beginning on Friday.
The bookmakers, who have placed World Champions Australia at a tempting 31-20 to lift the trophy, expect which ever team progressing to semifinal to lose to South Africa.
Both India and Pakistan, who are in Group C and face off at Edgbaston on September 19 in what is expected to be an electrifying final league clash, have received odds of 8-1 at 'readabet.Com' website which placed South Africa as the second favourites at 15-2.
England, who reversed their poor one-day form to defeat India 2-1 in the recent NatWest Challenge, have been backed at 17-2 while 2002 champions New Zealand were 9-1, which the website said was too narrow to reflect their prowess in the shorter version of the game.
The format of the tournament came in for special praise from the bookmakers which said the four-group cum knockout format meant "everything is far easier to follow than at the World Cup (in South Africa last year) where sides have often been left in curiously confusing predicaments regarding their potential advancement through the tournament."
