A swift half-century from skipper Rohit Sharma, fine knocks by Shreyas Iyer and fine spells from spinners, in particular Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav, helped an all-round India seal their third ICC Champions Trophy title, beating New Zealand by four wickets in Dubai on Sunday.
Rohit Sharma led-India national cricket team and restricted New Zealand for a score of 251/7 in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Indian spinners once again led the charge for the team and picked up five wickets during the first innings of the match.
The Indian spin quartet, comprising Varun Chakravarthy (2/45), Kuldeep Yadav (2/40), Axar Patel (0/29), and Ravindra Jadeja (1/30), combined to take five wickets, conceding just 144 runs in 38 overs at an economy rate of 3.79. Their impressive performance left New Zealand struggling to gain
Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav unleashed a brilliant spin choke with two wickets while Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja played a great supporting role, restricting Kiwis to 251/7 at the end of 50 overs in the CT final, despite half-centuries from Daryl Mitchell and Michael Bracewell.<
Former Australia wicketkeeper batter Matthew Wade has returned to the Gujarat Titans (GT) for the Indian Premier League 2025, this time as an assistant coach.
India and New Zealand confronted one another in the group stage, during which the Men in Blue triumphed over the Kiwis by 44 runs. Varun Chalravarthy was named the player of the match for his outstanding five-wicket haul.
During his short stay at the crease, Williamson could score just 11 runs in 14 balls, with a four against Mohammed Shami. However, he handed an easy catch to Kuldeep Yadav, becoming the third wicket of the match.
Both Virat and Santner have had brilliant CT 2025 campaigns. While Virat is the fourth-highest run-getter with 217 runs at an average of over 72 with a century and fifty each, Santner has taken seven wickets at an average of 27.71, with best figures of 3/43.
"And I think the geopolitical, the global situation at the moment is such that closer cooperation between India and the European Union is the thing to do. We have been saying quite often that 2025 is the EU-India year," she added.