India won the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Final in Dubai, beating New Zealand by four wickets.
They made 254/6, with KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja seeing the innings home with one over to spare, after New Zealand had earlier made 251/7.
The match was in the balance for a good proportion of the India innings as the Black Caps took a series of quick wickets.
The openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill put together a great first-wicket stand of 105, making the result look a foregone conclusion, but once again it was Glenn Phillips who produced something special. He took a tremendous catch, leaping to his right to remove Gill for 31, from the bowling of Mitchell Santner.
Michael Bracewell trapped new batter Virat Kohli lbw four balls later for just 1.
And Rachin Ravindra brought Rohit’s impressive day to an end, luring him down the track to be stumped by Tom Latham for 76.
Ravindra took another good catch to remove Shreyas Iyer on 48, with Axar Patel following three overs later, caught by Will O’Rourke off Michael Bracewell.
Hardik Pandya made a breezy run-a-ball cameo for 18, caught and bowled by Kyle Jamieson in the 48th over.
So it was left to Rahul and Jadeja to steer it home.
The Black Caps – already without the injured Matt Henry, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker – were missing Kane Williamson in the field, who sustained a quad injury while batting.
Earlier, India put a stranglehold on New Zealand as their spinners took control in the middle of the game with Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav both taking two wickets.
They managed to restrict New Zealand to a run-rate of 3.30 in overs 11 to 30.
But a late resurgence saw the Black Caps put on 50 runs in the last five overs to boost their score.
They had made a quick start, with Will Young and Ravindra both riding their luck as India missed a few chances for early wickets.
But Varun eventually made the breakthrough, taking out Young lbw in the eighth over.
Ravindra’s promising start was cut short for 37 runs off 29 balls, bowled by Kuldeep, who then caught-and-bowled Kane Williamson two overs later.
Latham was trapped lbw by Jadeja for 14, Phillips put in a valuable 34 off 52 balls, hitting two fours and a six before being bowled by Varun, and Daryl Mitchell’s 63 from 101 balls was also useful, but included only three boundaries.
Captain Santner was run out as his side pushed for more runs in the penultimate over, and Bracewell reached his half-century with one ball of the innings left, to give himself and the rest of the bowlers a target to work with.
Santner won the toss and opted to bat first.
India have had a seamless run to the final – remaining unbeaten – and bested Australia in the semi-final to punch their ticket for the final.
Despite their loss against India in the group stage, New Zealand have also been impressive in all departments and arrive in the final on the back of a comprehensive win over South Africa in the final four.
Playing XI:
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
New Zealand: Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke
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