By winning their third ICC Champions Trophy championship and defeating New Zealand by four wickets in an exciting fight, India wrote a magnificent chapter in cricketing history in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Under Rohit Sharma’s direction, India proved resilience, depth, and pure class to overcome a vibrant New Zealand side and establish themselves as the most successful team in the history of the event.
India’s chase, aiming at 252 on a slow pitch, was anchored by their skipper Rohit Sharma, who blazingly scored a 76 off 83 balls. Though New Zealand’s disciplined bowling attack, headed by spinners Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner, kept the fight alive, his spectacular performance set the tone. A small wave of anxiety rocked the Indian camp following Rohit’s dismissal, but Shreyas Iyer (48 off 62) and KL Rahul (34* off 33) kept their cool to guide India to triumph with an over to spare. The cameo by Hardik Pandya was also rather important in the closing moments.
Thanks to opposing half-centuries from Daryl Mitchell (63 off 101) and Michael Bracewell (53* off 40), New Zealand earlier put a challenging 251/7 in their 50 overs. But India’s spin trio of Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Ravindra Jadeja cranked the screws on the Kiwis, sharing five wickets between them and thereby limiting the run flow on a challenging surface.
For India, this triumph was especially sweet since it was atonement following the pain of missing the 2023 ODI World Cup final on home ground.
𝗖. 𝗛. 𝗔. 𝗠. 𝗣. 𝗜. 𝗢. 𝗡. 𝗦! 🇮🇳🏆 🏆 🏆
The Rohit Sharma-led #TeamIndia are ICC #ChampionsTrophy 2025 𝙒𝙄𝙉𝙉𝙀𝙍𝙎 👏 👏
Take A Bow! 🙌 🙌#INDvNZ | #Final | @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/ey2llSOYdG
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 9, 2025
