India defeat New Zealand to lift Champions Trophy

DUBAI: A clinical performance by India saw them defeat New Zealand by four wickets to lift the Champions Trophy in Dubai on Sunday.

Chasing 252, India reached the victory target in 49 overs with four wickets in hand as they scored 254/6 to lift the title.

Skipper Rohit Sharma led the chase with a masterful 76 off 83 balls while Shreyas Iyer chipped in with a valuable knock of 48 off 62 before KL Rahul (34*) and Ravindra Jadeja (9*) completed the tricky chase on a turning track.

Axar Patel’s 29 off 40 provided a firm foundation in the middle after India had lost Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli in quick succession to leave India at 106/2 in 19.1 overs.

Glenn Phillips 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.

Rachin Ravindra brought Rohit Sharma's impressive day to an end, luring him down the track to be stumped by Tom Latham for 76. His innings comprised seven boundaries and three huge sixes.

Hardik Pandya’s run a ball 18 brought India to the close but departed in the 48th over.

The Black Caps - already without the injured Matt Henry, the tournament's leading wicket-taker - also missed 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 Ravindra Jadeja for 14, Glenn 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 Mitchell Santner was run out as his side pushed for more runs in the penultimate over, and Michael 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.

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.

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