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India justified its favorite status before the tournament with a four-gate victory against New Zealand in the Champions Trophy final in Dubai.
Chasing 252 To win, India has taken a flying start while Captain Rohit Sharma spoke of his half-century of 41 balls to help direct his team to 100 without loss after 17 overtime.
However, India lost three counters for 17 points after the drinking break and it took an important 48 of Shreyas Iyer and 34 Pas from KL Rahul to reach the Victory goal with an over-to losing.
“I don’t think I could say that to the camera, but I was myself at the end,” said Rahul in an interview on the edge of the pitch.
“We still had a few to come, so I was convinced that we could overcome the line, but in moments like this and large games, it is more about holding your composure, which we all know-but it is not easy.
“Happy to win this and happy to overcome the line this time.”
Sharma and Shubman Gill put 105 for the first window before Glenn Phillips took an astonishing capture to reject Gill for 31 on the bowling of Captain Mitchell Santner, with Virat Kohli then trapped LBW from Michael Bracewell’s first ball.
Sharma had made 76 to 83 balls before being perplexed by Tom Latham following a wild swing in Rachin Ravira to leave India 122 for three, but Iyer and Axar Patel put 61 for the fourth stoppage to put the pursuit on the track.
New Zealand, which had won the draw and chose to beat first, had previously reached 69 for one of the first 10 Overs, with Will Young and Ravira on putting 57 for the first window.
However, India spin’s attack fought control of the competition when they took the first five counters to die for and helped to restrict New Zealand to 251 for seven out of their 50 overtime.
Kuldeep Yadav played Ravira (37 years old) with her first delivery, then gratified a simple return from Kane Williamson when New Zealand slipped to 75 for three, with Latham by only doing 14 before being pinned LBW by Ravirand Jadeja.
Phillips and Daryl Mitchell ruled the ship with a 57 partnership before the first was cleaned by Varun Chakravarthy, with Mitchell with the best score with 63 to 101 balls before shredding a slower ball from Mohammed Shami directly to the cover.
Bracewell made an undefeated 53 at 40 balls to make sure that his team has exceeded the 250 barrier, although this has always seemed a total difficult to defend, in particular in the absence of a main victim of the Matt Henry counter.
“It was a good tournament,” said Santner. “We play the right cricket at the end of the day and I guess we were beaten by a good side that turned out to be today.
“Everyone has contributed throughout this tournament and that’s all you can ask for as captain and team.”
Asked what made the difference in the sleeves in the middle of the sleeves on his side, Santner added: “I think it was a good bowling alley. They really got the pressure and the merit of the way their spinners have strengthened.
“These are world class quieurs, all four, and I suppose that we were 20 or 25 years old under what we wanted to get.”
