Champions Trophy: India avenged its 2017 Champions Trophy final defeat by crushing Pakistan by 6 wickets in Dubai. With this loss, Pakistan faces possible elimination from the tournament. Batting first, Pakistan posted 241 runs, with Saud Shakeel top-scoring with 62 and Mohammad Rizwan adding 46. Kuldeep Yadav shone with the ball, taking 3 wickets, while Hardik Pandya picked up 2 crucial dismissals.
Chasing 242, India comfortably reached the target in 42.3 overs, thanks to Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 100, Shreyas Iyer’s solid 56, and Shubman Gill’s quick 46. Shaheen Afridi took 2 wickets, while Abrar Ahmed and Khushdil Shah claimed one each.
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Kohli’s century was historic—his 51st in ODIs, making him the third-highest run-scorer in international cricket, surpassing Ricky Ponting’s 27,483 runs. He also became the fastest batsman to reach 14,000 ODI runs and set a new Indian record with 158 catches in ODIs.
With this emphatic win, India strengthens its position in the tournament, while Pakistan faces an uphill battle for survival.
Champions Trophy: 2 heroes of India’s victory
- Virat Kohli: Played an innings of 100 runs Virat Kohli played an innings of 100 runs on 111 balls. He came to play after Rohit Sharma was out and kept the Indian innings tied. Virat played out Abrar’s overs with patience and then scored runs quickly.
- Kuldeep Yadav: Took 3 wickets, stopped Pakistan from scoring runs in death overs Kuldeep took 3 wickets. He took the wickets of Salman Agha, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah in the death overs. Due to this, Pakistan team could not score many runs in the death overs.
Champions Trophy: 2 Reasons for Pakistan’s defeat
- Slow batting: After losing 2 wickets in the powerplay, Pakistan batted very slowly in the middle overs. Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel made a partnership of 104 runs in 144 balls. The team could score only 131 runs in 180 balls between 11 and 40 overs.
- Lack of spinners: Pakistan gave chance to only one full time spinner Abrar Ahmed in the playing-11. He took 1 wicket for 28 runs in 10 overs. The rest of the spinners could not support him. The team did not even keep leg spin all-rounder Shadab Khan in the squad.
Playing-11
India:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Harshit Rana.
Pakistan:
Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Imam ul Haq, Saud Shakeel, Babar Azam, Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Abrar Ahmed.
Rizwan said – could not take advantage of the toss
Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan said- We won the toss but couldn’t take advantage of it. We wanted to score 280 runs but the Indian bowlers did well in the middle overs. Saud and I played bad shots and lost wickets. Kohli and Gill took the game away from us.
My responsibility increased after Rohit was out- Kohli
Player of the match Virat Kohli said- I am feeling good after batting like this in an important match. Our hopes of reaching the semi-finals were based on this match. After Rohit was out, my responsibility increased even more. I was trying to control the middle overs, taking less risk against the spinners, but charging the pacers. I am happy with my batting, this is how I bat. I know my game. I just don’t want to listen to outside voices and want to give all my energy to my game. I like to fulfill the expectations of the team, especially like to win such matches.
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