In an intense high stakes finale of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, India defeated the Black caps once again to lift their third champions trophy, and captain Rohit Sharma’s first. This finale marked the 2nd ICC event win for Rohit Sharma and the 4th ICC event final.
The Kiwis were off to a good start an aggressive opening partnership of 69/0 in 10 overs, with Rachin Ravindra scoring 37 off 29. However, the Indian bowling lineup, especially the spinners pulled things back quickly as NZ lost 4 wickets in quick succession. Thanks to a partnership from Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips, the Kiwis slowly crawled their way back into the game, only to face another slump as both of them were dismissed with New Zealand still far from a fighting total. However, Michael Bracewell’s aggressive knock under pressure guided the black caps to 251/7, giving them a fighting chance.
However, India began to make a joke of the total right off the bat, scoring runs very aggressively and quickly, with a 100 run stand from the openers coming up in just 18 overs, with captain Rohit Sharma leading by example with a scintillating knock of 76 off 83, which lead to lesser pressure than usual from the fall of wickets due to the amount of runs that had already been piled up, as shortly after the 100 run partnership India lost 3 wickets in next 22 runs, slightly bringing New Zealand back into the game. However, the strong and dependable middle order played very well to quickly get India back in the game, knowing the situation is not as bad as it seems because of the runs that had already been scored by the opening partnership. Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel played responsibly, making sure the run flow kept going, while hitting audacious boundaries and sixes whenever possible. Despite the middle order batsmen losing their wickets in regular succession, the pressure was not building up on India even a bit as they would’ve already made great progress towards the target by the time a wicket fell, considering how deep their battling lineup goes, especially their demon of a middle order. This was because of the openers’ contribution other than the middle order’s carnage, which earned Rohit Sharma the Man of the Match award.
Rohit Sharma dismissed for 76 runs off 83 balls. I cannot believe it 💔💔💔#ChampionsTrophy2025 #tapmad #DontStopStreaming #CatchEveryMatch pic.twitter.com/A6c2jNVgA8
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) March 9, 2025
Another commendable aspect of India’s batting is their fearless and nonchalant approach as they kept hitting audacious sixes wherever possible despite the slowness of the pitch and fall of wickets at regular intervals as the entire batting lineup hit 9 sixes in total, which is the second most amount of sixes in a team’s innings in this whole tournament(behind only Afghanistan who hit 12 sixes in their 325/7 against England and tied with Australia who also hit 9 in their 356/5 against England as well), and most among all team’s innings at Dubai’s pitch. Impressively, India hit more sixes in their 254/6 than the Kiwis did in their 362/6(the highest team total in this tournament) against SA in the semis. This was also personally my favourite memory of the final as well as the whole tournament.
India Lifts the Champions Trophy🏆 🇮🇳
— Praful Patel (@praful_patel) March 9, 2025
A historic triumph as Team India shines on the grandest stage, defeating New Zealand in the final to claim the Champions Trophy 2025. A moment of pride, passion, and dominance. @BCCI @ImRo45#ChampionsTrophy #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/KmFFrVBQ0l
An exceptional game and an exceptional result!
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 9, 2025
Proud of our cricket team for bringing home the ICC Champions Trophy. They’ve played wonderfully through the tournament. Congratulations to our team for the splendid all round display.
𝗖. 𝗛. 𝗔. 𝗠. 𝗣. 𝗜. 𝗢. 𝗡. 𝗦! 🇮🇳🏆 🏆 🏆
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 9, 2025
The Rohit Sharma-led #TeamIndia are ICC #ChampionsTrophy 2025 𝙒𝙄𝙉𝙉𝙀𝙍𝙎 👏 👏
Take A Bow! 🙌 🙌#INDvNZ | #Final | @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/ey2llSOYdG
Overall, it was an all round effort from the team as the bowlers dealt with the black caps’ batting lineup to restrict them to a meagre 251/7; while the entire Indian batting lineup played commendably, splendidly and showcased some fearless cricket to smoothly chase down the target despite some minor setbacks, thus rightfully lifting their 3rd ICC Champions Trophy easily on a difficult pitch which usually produces hard fought victories, a testament to India’s dominance and prowess in the sport of cricket, which was mentioned by even one of the commentators in yesterday’s match – Aakash Chopra.
