DUBAI INTERNATIONAL STADIUM: India has beaten Kiwis by 4 wickets (6 balls remaining) here Sunday (9th March, 2025) to lift the ICC Champions Trophy for a record 3rd time.
Earlier, Kiwis, that opted to bat first after winning the toss, scored 251 for the loss of 7 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.
India, that remained unbeatable through out the tournament, was chasing the 252 runs target set by New Zealand. After winning the Championship Indian Skipper Rohit Sharma stated: “I want to appreciate everyone who came out and supported us. The crowd here has been magnificent, it is not our home ground but they made it our home ground.
“The number of people that came here to watch us play, to give them that win was satisfying. Not just this game but right through, our spinners in particular, there’s too much expectations when you are playing on a pitch like that. We do understand their strengths and used it to our advantage.”
New Zealand Captain Mitchell Santner, who scored sixty-three runs facing 101 deliveries, while commenting on the final match said: “It has been a good tournament. We had challenges along the way, but we have grown as a group and played some good cricket. We were beaten by a good side who turned up today.
“Lot of good stuff from our group, guys stepping up at different times and that’s all you can ask as a captain. It was good bowling. We lost a couple of wickets after the powerplay. Credit to the way their spinners bowled, all four of them, world class. We were 25 under but we had a total, we tried to fight and that’s what we did.”
Daryl Mitchell scored 63 runs off 101 deliveries, Michael Bracewell’s bat yielded 53 runs off 40 balls, Rachin Ravindra, who faced 29 balls, mustered 37 runs up. Rohit Sharma made 76 off 83 balls, Shreyas Iyer scored 48 off 62 balls and KL Rahul contributed 34 runs off 33 deliveries,
Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (skipper), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
New Zealand: Mitchell Santner (skipper), Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Will O’Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Nathan Smith, Kane Williamson, Will Young, Jacob Duffy.
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