India down New Zealand in final to lift third Champions Trophy title

Rohit Sharma led the chase with a cracking fifty after spin quartet bowled brilliantly as India defeated New Zealand in the final by four wickets to lift the third Champions Trophy title in Dubai on Sunday.

After restricting New Zealand to a par total of 251/7, India chased down the target with six balls to spare.

With the victory, India settled a 25-year-old score with New Zealand. A low-profile New Zealand, who had just two senior players Chirs Cairns and Stephen Fleming in their ranks, had defeated a star-studded India 25 years ago in the final to win the ICC Knockout, which later was rebranded as Champions Trophy before being removed from the cricket itinerary for eight long years in 2017, making a return in Dubai in 2025.

Fast forward to 2025, Rohit gave India a blistering start as he added 105 runs for the first wicket with Shubman Gill. Rohit was at his brutal best and got off with six.

He set the tone for a successful chase with a blitzkrieg knock of 83-ball 76 and made it easy for the other batsmen.  Santner broke the partnership to bring New Zealand back into the match by dismissing Gill.

After the departure of Gill, a charged-up New Zealand bowlers started attacking. India lost three wickets within 17 runs to be reduced to 122/3 from 105/0. Bracewell trapped Kohli and Rohit was caught by Latham off Rachin.

The onus of taking India through came on Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel. They added 62 runs for the fourth wicket to take the match deep before Shreyas became the second victim of Santner.

Patel, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja chipped in with useful contributions as Indian reached the target with ease.

New Zealand used seven bowlers, three pacers and four spinners -- Santner, Ravindra, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Philips.

Their spinners also did pretty well as they gave away 152 runs in their 35 overs combined and took five wickets with Bracewell and Santner picking up two wickets each for 28 and 36 runs respectively.

Earlier, the Indian spinners wreaked havoc with a disciplined and precise bowling. India’s spin attack, which boasts of four very lethal slow bowlers, reminds of India’s famous spin quartet of Bishen Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Srinivas Venkatraghavan and Erapalli Prasanna.

Spinners led India's fight back after New Zealand got off to a fiery start. India’s strategy of playing with the four spinners yielded the results once again.

Indian pacers were struggling to contain the flow of runs, leave alone taking a wicket. The New Zealand openers Will Young and Rachin put on a blitzkrieg 69 runs for the first wicket in 10 overs.

They gave a strong start to help New Zealand post a big total. New Zealand looked set to finish around somewhere near 320. But Indian spinners were yet to be introduced.

The moment India launched the spin assault, they regained the ground, pushing New Zealand on the back foot. Before the final, Indian spinners produced a total of 21 dismissals in just four matches.

It was mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who triggered the collapse. After that New Zealand could never recover and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals as Indian spinners ripped through the middle-order.

He trapped Young in front of the wickets to break the partnership. After that Kuldeep Yadav spun the web to send back Rachin and Kane Williamson in quick succession to make it 75/3 from 57/0.

Both Rachin and Williamson smashed a century each in their previous game against South Africa as they piled up 350 plus runs. Their dismissal brought respite to the Indian camp.

Indian spinners tightened the noose and choked the flow of the runs completely. New Zealand started struggling for runs. They played 10 overs without hitting a single boundary.

Tom Latham lost his patience and missed a full straight delivery from Ravindra Jadeja in an attempt to play a sweep shot and was caught plumb in front of the wickets as New Zealand lost fourth wicket for 108 in 23.2. In 13.2 overs after powerplay, India conceded just 39 for 3.

Bracewell hit a quick-fire 40-ball 53 to propel New Zealand to 251/7. Shami got rid of him for his only scalp. Four Indian spinners conceded a total of 144 runs in 38 overs combined and accounted for five dismissals.

While Shami and Hardik Pandya bowled just 12 overs combined and gave away 104 runs together. Shami picked one wicket only.

India was sloppy in the field as they dropped quite a few catches. So far, India have dropped 10 catches out of the 26 chances they got.

Their conversion rate is alarming low. Shami leads the tally with three drops to be closely followed by captain Rohit, who has two to his name.

Rachin was dropped by Shreyas Iyer and Mohammad Shami before Daryll Mitchell was put down by Rohit Sharma off Axar when batting on 38. Gill followed the suit and gave a reprieve to Phillips who was on 28 then.

But none of the batsmen could capitalise on the chances except Mithcell, who went on to score a fighting 63, adding 25 runs to his score after getting reprieve.