Mashrafe bin mortaza v Mahendra Singh Dhoni

If one takes the respective attributes of these two captains to stereotypical extremes, this can be billed as a battle between Dhoni's calculation and Mashrafe's inspiration, but there is more to it than that.

While Dhoni's methods have crystallised into one of cold-minded rationality over a captaincy career going back almost nine years, there are instinctive masterstrokes – an offbeat field placement or bowling change that bears fruit – that defeat anticipation of his tactics. Mashrafe, meanwhile, is much more demonstrative than his Indian counterpart and is the emotional heart of the team, but over the past 18 months or so he has balanced that with being an excellent man manager and an imaginative captain, as his placement of three fielders between point and third man inside the circle in the late overs of the Pakistan game showed. He is different from Dhoni in that he is a more attacking captain, having at his disposal the best bowling attack in the country's history. Both, nearing the ends of their careers, are now looking to cement their legacies as the most successful leaders of their nations.