India lift third Champions Trophy as Rohit, Rahul steer thrilling chase

Despite the stiff challenge posed by New Zealand, India clinched the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 by a four-wicket margin, marking the third time they won this title. Chasing 251 in the final on a tricky surface in Dubai, India were put under pressure both with the bat and ball but they managed to put in a collective effort that saw them get over the line to go through the tournament unbeaten, and add a seventh ICC senior trophy to their cabinet.

India got off to a rollicking start in the chase led by skipper Rohit Sharma. In a 105-run opening stand, Rohit dominated contributing 69 off 63 and setting the tone early. With the conditions favouring spin, both teams targeted the pacers well with Rohit's assault nearly making a mockery of the chase. The first eight overs bowled by New Zealand's pacers, sans their injured spearhead Matt Henry, saw Rohit race off to 47 in a team score of 59.

It forced Mitchell Santner to bring himself on but by and large the openers were able to keep the run-rate up even while toning down the aggression. Reaching 106 by 19 overs, India were firmly in the driver's seat before New Zealand pulled things back.

Santner had Shubman Gill caught splendidly at cover by a leaping Glenn Phillips, who added to his highlights reel of eye-popping catches, while Michael Bracewell struck with his first ball turning one past Virat Kohli's flick to trap him LBW for one. Losing two wickets in the space of four balls put the pressure back on India and New Zealand's spinners began to apply the choke. Even a well-set Rohit had to cut the risks out while Shreyas Iyer settled in.

This brought about a phase of 11 dot balls in a row before Rohit gave charge to Rachin Ravindra only to be stumped. At 122/3, the game was tilting back to parity with India in need of another partnership.

Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer mixed caution with aggression to push things back. The latter got a life early on when Will Young made a valiant attempt at the deep mid-wicket boundary to take a catch but stepped onto the ropes while tossing it back into play.

Iyer and Patel went about a sedate stand but added 62 crucial runs with Kyle Jamieson dropping a sitter at long on when Iyer was on 44. But that did not prove too costly as Iyer took on Mitchell Santner soon after in an attempt to clear short fine leg only to be taken by Rachin Ravindra. With the asking rate hovering around the run-a-ball mark, KL Rahul came in and lofted Santner for a six early on easing some nerves. But there was another twist on course as a well-set Patel miscued a loft off Bracewell to hole out to long off.

Needing 48 in as many balls, the final was still firmly in balance. But Rahul and Hardik Pandya got boundaries ever so often at the back-end to keep India well within the asking rate. Pandya's 18-ball 18 was ended by a bouncer from Jamieson but India needed only 11 off 15 by this point. Some smart batting from Jadeja and Rahul thereafter saw India home staving off a stiff fight from New Zealand.

Just as they did with the ball, New Zealand had made sure that India wouldn't run away with the game with the ball as well. Despite a sustained effort from India's spinners, they managed to get to a competitive total.

Daryl Mitchell fought his way to a 101-ball 63 as he absorbed and tried to revert the pressure exerted by India's spin quartet. The four of them had not only dragged the game back in India's favour after a rapid start in the powerplay but changed the colour of the innings overall on a slow surface sticking to straight lines largely.

Early on, it was New Zealand that did all the running thanks to an attacking Rachin Ravindra at the top. The leading run-scorer of the tournament showcased the form he was in with some delectable shots off the pacers. Hardik Pandya was picked up for 16 in an over while Mohammed Shami too was flicked elegantly making Rohit Sharma turn to his spin weapon earlier than at any point previously in the tournament.

Varun Chakaravarthy started with a googly that went for four byes first up but created the chance that India was after with Ravindra top-edging a slog-sweep. But Iyer, running across from deep midwicket, could not hold on to the opportunity. Ravindra now had two chances put down in as many overs with Shami failing to latch on to a tough return chance before. But Chakaravarthy still managed to break a 58-run opening stand in that over trapping Will Young plumb LBW while missing a flick. After 10 overs, Ravindra was looking in ominous form hitting 37 off the 69 they had raced to.

But Kuldeep Yadav turned the innings on its head with his first delivery of the game - a wrong 'un that sneaked past Ravindra's dab. He pulled things further towards India in his following over when he deceived Kane Williamson in the air and accepted a simple return-catch.

At 75/3, New Zealand were now made to take the foot off the accelerator as they risked a crash and burn. Both Tom Latham and Daryl Mitchell went the conservative way even as the boundaries dried up against the spinners. Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel kept the pressure up through the middle overs allowing no freebies even when there was no extravagant turn on offer. The final saw India's spinners being required to bowl more than they did in any game in the tournament, and that they managed to collectively bowl within stump lines for 37% of the time meant that New Zealand's risk-taking always came with a greater threat than usual.

Their 33-run stand off 66 balls contained only one boundary before Latham missed a sweep to be LBW against Jadeja. Mitchell, however, did not deviate from the template that he had for himself and stitched together another dour 57-run stand with Glenn Phillips for the fifth wicket. Both batters were also dropped once each against an uncharacteristically poor day on the field for India's catchers. But Phillips couldn't make the most of it as he was bowled by a googly from Chakaravarthy for 34.

Mitchell, meanwhile, brought up a hard-fought fifty and began to switch gears alongside an adventurous Michael Bracewell. Their 45-run stand powered New Zealand past 200 but just when they were sizing up for a big finish, Mitchell ended up spooning Shami to cover. But Bracewell was able to keep the momentum going with some smart batting against the pacers in the death overs. He brought up his fifty in the final over and dragged New Zealand past the 250-mark with 35 coming in the last three overs bowled by pace.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 251/7 (Daryl Mitchell 63, Michael Bracewell 53*; Varun Chakaravarthy 2-45, Kuldeep Yadav 2-40) lost to India 254/6 (Rohit Sharma 76, Shreyas Iyer 48) by 4 wickets