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India takes on Pakistan in Dhaka slugfest

Arch rivals India and Pakistan will clash in the opening round of the of the ICC knock-out cricket tournament, beginning in Dhaka on October 24.

In this tournament, being held for the first time, only the nine Test-playing countries will feature in the limited overs contest.

World champions Sri Lanka has been given a bye in the tournament, which is being conducted to raise funds for the ICC's development programme.

The tournament is on a knockout basis, which means one chance is all you get. And in that perspective, it does seem interesting that while England and Australia have relatively easy first round games, against Zimbabwe and New Zealand respectively, some other teams are not quite as favoured by the luck of the draw.

Thus, South Africa and the West Indies take each other on, knowing that only one will go through into the next round, on October 26. And a similar situation applies to India, which takes on Pakistan on October 28, in a do-or-get-out game.

Follows the full schedule:

October 24: Match 1, England versus Zimbabwe
October 25: Match 2. Australia versus New Zealand.
October 26: Match 3, West Indies versus South Africa.
October 27: Match 4, Sri Lanka versus winner of Match 1.
October 28: Match 5, India versus Pakistan
October 29: First semifinal, winner of match two versus winner of match 3.
October 30: Second semifinal, winner of match four versus winner of match five.
October 31: Final.