KL Rahul leads India to four-wicket win over NZ in Champions Trophy final

India has lifted the Champions Trophy after an absorbing battle with New Zealand in the final.

Once again, it was KL Rahul who dragged his side across the line for a hard-earned, nervy four-wicket victory in Dubai. 

Just as in the semifinal against Australia on the same ground five days earlier, the finisher Rahul kept his cool and, aided by fellow old stagers Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, steered India to another major title with just one over to spare on Sunday. 

Rahul finished undefeated on 34 as India, chasing New Zealand’s 7-251, laboured to get to their target after a blistering 76 by captain Rohit Sharma.

Sharma’s opening partnership of 105 with Shubman Gill had initially made it look as if it should be a cakewalk.

But another unbelievable diving catch from Glenn Phillips sent Gill packing and New Zealand just wouldn’t go away, inspired by Michael Bracewell’s terrific all-round performance, nabbing wickets every time it seemed India must be in control.

Yet after Shreyas Iyer fell for 48, it ended up coming down to old heads Pandya (18 off 18) and Jadeja (9 not out off 6) to help Rahul win the day.

“I don’t think I can say this on camera but I was s****ing myself at the end,” smiled Rahul in a pitchside interview.

“In moments like this in big games, it’s all about holding your composure. It’s not easy but, yeah, happy to get across the line this time.”

For India, unbeaten throughout the tournament, it was a second ICC trophy in two years following the T20 World Cup triumph in Bridgetown in 2024.

Interrupted only by their 50-over World Cup final defeat by Australia in 2023, they’ve now confirmed themselves as white-ball masters with an extraordinary record of 23 victories in their last 24 ICC tournament matches.

Asked for their secret, Rahul said: “Hard to put in words, but pure skill … We keep challenging ourselves to getting better.”

New Zealand were well in the game after Bracewell’s 39-ball half-century late in their knock elevated them to a par total after a trial by spin.

Bracewell ended unbeaten on 53 off 40 balls as the Black Caps, who opted to bat, took advantage of the Indians failing to back up their excellent tweakers as they dropped four catches.

Bracewell’s knock gave Mitchell Santner’s team crucial impetus after Daryl Mitchell had held the innings together with a slow but vital 63 off 101 balls amid the stranglehold of Kuldeep Yadav (2-40), Jadeja (1-30), Varun Chakravarthy (2-45) and Axar Patel (0-29).

Rohit, guilty of one of the drops, made amends with three glorious sixes in his 76, but India stuttered after Phillips’s unreal leaping one-hander at short extra cover — his fourth amazing catch of the tournament — off a blazing Gill drive.

Uncertainty took over. 

Bracewell snared the master chaser Virat Kohli for one, before Rohit was stumped when trying to charge out and bully Rachin Ravindra, who’d earlier made another exciting 37 with the bat and ended up deservedly going home with the consolation of the player-of-the-tournament award.

Bracewell (2-28) continued to shine, dismissing the dangerous Axar for 29 but the strength-in-depth of the Indian line-up proved just too much, even after Pandya was caught-and-bowled off a rearing Kyle Jamieson short ball in what shaped as one final plot twist.

Alas for the Kiwis, India, on the Dubai patch they’d made their own after refusing to play in the host country of Pakistan, kept their nerve, with player-of-the-match Sharma asserting rightly: “We played really good cricket throughout the tournament.”

Santner, without key paceman Matt Henry because of injury, had no complaints. “We had challenges along the way, but we have grown as a group and played some good cricket.”

AAP