If Pakistan and England’s respective semi-final performances are an indication, Sunday’s final between the two teams at the MCG should be a cracker of a contest.

The possibility of rain upsetting all plans looms large on the big match. But if the match is played, either in full or a truncated version, either on Sunday or on Monday (the reserve day), both the teams will hope to gain an upper hand in the match-ups between their key players. The Telegraph lists some such possible duels:

Buttler/Hales vs Shaheen

The ease with which England captain Jos Buttler and his opening partner Alex Hales carted the Indian bowling attack in the semi-final in Adelaide must be a worry for Pakistan. But Pakistan’s quicks, led by Shaheen Shah Afridi, are in fine rhythm and, more importantly, they are much faster than the Indian pacers which could make the task tougher for the English openers. The improvisation they could make against someone like Bhuvneshwar Kumar will not at all be easy against Shaheen or Naseem Shah or Haris Rauf.

England’s Chris Woakes at practice. Twitter

How Buttler and Hales respond against Shaheen will be vital in terms of the final’s outcome. If the game begins after a spell of showers, and England bat first, those first two overs of Shaheen will be of massive significance.

As the semi-final showed, if Buttler and Hales survive the initial overs, they can run away with the match. So it’s important for Pakistan to bombard the English openers with fast and furious stuff from the very beginning. And for that, Shaheen’s missiles will come in handy.

Rizwan/Babar vs Woakes/Curran

Just when Pakistan needed their two best batters to fire, Mohammad Rizwan and skipper Babar Azam delivered, enabling their team to ease past New Zealand in the semis clash. Nothing is better than a good start in a T20 contest, even more so for Pakistan whose middle order lacks experience.

England have shown that they plan meticulously and they surely have thought of ideas to get rid of the Pakistan openers early. If Mark Wood remains absent, quicks Chris Woakes and Sam Curran will focus on the outside-the-off stump channel. That will test Rizwan and Babar.

Pakistan’s Shadab Khan in Melbourne on Saturday, the eve of the final. Twitter

Shadab vs Stokes

So far in this T20 World Cup, all-rounders Shadab Khan and Ben Stokes have had contrasting roles to play.

Leg-spinner Shadab, with 10 wickets, has been one of Pakistan’s main bowlers, adjusting quite well in the Australian conditions. Whereas England have used Stokes more on a stop-gap basis as he bowled his full quota of overs only in one game, against Afghanistan.

Regardless of how many overs they bowl, Shadab and Stokes’ performance with the ball will matter a lot for Pakistan and England. And so would their batting. Pakistan may also use Shadab the bowler to neutralise Stokes the batsman.

Whose day will it be in the final, Shadab or Stokes?