A near full house will greet the two teams as they finally get down to cricket after months of diplomacy managed to bring them together in a non-ICC event. When it comes to on-field stuff between the two sides, whose players have normally tended to get along quite well, it is usually how the Indian batting fares against Pakistan's bowling that settles the contest. 

It doesn't look any different this time around even if Dhoni said at the pre-match conference on Monday that 'strength on paper' will not matter and it will be a simple case of which team plays better on the night. In an India-Pakistan match though, with all its attendant pressures, there can be a case of whichever team managing to play less worse, coming away with the right result.

Yes, pressure will be the name of the game and no matter how much Hafeez may have stressed on the important of 'good cricket' and how a win or loss is secondary, both teams know that neither country digests a loss against the other too well. 

There are of course a host of talents in either team but talent can only take you so far. Still, with both sides being fairly young, past history may not have that of much of a bearing. For the hosts, however, recent form -- they were outclassed by England in home Tests and held to a draw in a T20 series -- may be a more worrisome factor. 

Dhoni did say that close finishes in T20 cricket, such as the one in Mumbai last Saturday, don't normally leave a team shattered, given the extremely short nature of the format and the shorter turnaround time between games. 

On the face of it, India's problems may seem to lie with the inexperienced bowling attack. In reality, though, it is the batsmen on whom the onus must be put. 

Hafeez termed India as one of the most powerful line-ups in the world, if not the best. That the Indian batsmen have shown themselves to be fallible against pace and spin recently make matters worse. 

Add the fact that they will be up against proven performers such as Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi and it may even be a relief that it is only a T20 match on Tuesday. 

India's saving grace could be Pakistan's batting, which tends to disintegrate in unprecedented fashion. 

On both sides of the border, there are people who want this Indo-Pak series to be scrapped. To these people we would say that avenues for friendly engagements between people from both countries are few enough without our seeking to narrow them down even further. 

No reasonable person can quarrel with the proposition that it is in everybody's interests if India and Pakistan can coexist peacefully. 

It must then follow that every chance of advancing the prospects of peace must be used. Cricket, like cinema and music, is something that the people of both countries are passionate about. Every time the two teams have met on the cricket field, the atmosphere has been great. Let us cherish it.