India sing we’re the champions

Dubai: For the last three weeks, Rohit Sharma has got off to starts but failed to kick on. Despite scoring at well over a run a ball in India’s first four matches, the skipper only had a highest of 41. He felt he owed his team a few, coming into Sunday’s final of the Champions Trophy.

Up against his team were New Zealand, who hadn’t lost to India previously in the final of an ICC tournament. Conversely, India hadn’t lost in 10 previous One-Day Internationals at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Rohit set the tone as India extended their unbeaten run at this ground; along the way, India went into the history books by becoming the first team to lift the Champions Trophy thrice.

Rohit had played only a bit part with the bat during India’s triumph at the T20 World Cup in Bridgetown in June. Perhaps that rankled as much as the fact that he hadn’t made a big one here, or that he didn’t have a half-century in an ICC final previously. Whatever the reason, the skipper unleashed a spectacular onslaught on New Zealand’s tally of 251 for seven, which owed itself hugely to contrasting half-centuries from a subdued Daryl Mitchell and a frenetic Michael Bracewell.

New Zealand were without Matt Henry, the leading wicket-taker of the competition forced to sit out with a right shoulder injury sustained in the semifinal victory over South Africa. Henry was a big miss – he had taken five wickets against India a week back in the league fixture too – but there is no gainsaying how he would have fared, given that Rohit was focused on scoring quickly without hitting the cover off the ball.

The runs came attractively and quickly, the standout a cover-drive off Nathan Smith that screamed to the fence. Shubman Gill, working his way back among the runs, watched from the best seat in the house as his captain tore into the bowling without premeditation, dominating their seventh hundred-plus opening stand in 33 innings.

Glenn Phillips – who else? – pulled off the latest in a series of screamers, leaping overhead to end Gill’s evening. That set the cat among the pigeons; Virat Kohli, expected to shore up the chase, was trapped in front second ball by Bracewell, easily New Zealand’s best spinner of the night, while Rohit lost fluency and his cool, charging Rachin Ravindra and being stumped by a mile.

In losing three for 17 in 46 deliveries, India had dug a deep hole for themselves, but fortunately, they had Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel to bail them out. Iyer has been a consistent threat all through the tournament while Axar has revelled in his promotion to No. 5; they took their time but gradually ate into the target by adding 61 when, against the run of play, Iyer fell to New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner.

Axar threw his hand away in Bracewell’s last over but KL Rahul, calm as ever, and Hardik Pandya, all fire and brimstone, took the team to within 11 of victory. In the end, the honour of smacking the winning boundary went to Ravindra Jadeja, perhaps fitting because he has been one of India’s unsung heroes during this unbeaten campaign.

Jadeja and the rest of his spinning compatriots – Axar and wrist-spin twins Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav – kept the Kiwis honest after India lost a 15th ODI toss in a row. New Zealand began briskly through Will Young and Ravindra, but the former’s fall brought the wickets of Ravindra and the experienced Kane Williamson in rapid succession.

Mitchell, therefore, was forced to eschew all risk. While he kept one end going, Phillips and then Bracewell, more emphatically, set about the bowling. New Zealand seemed on course for maybe 235 or so until Bracewell cut loose towards the end, targeting Mohammed Shami, who leaked 74 in his nine overs, and Pandya. The Kiwis stacked up 50 in the last five but still fell short. By how much, we will never know.

SCORE BOARD

NEW ZEALAND Young lbw Chakravarthy .................15 (23b 2x4) Ravindra b Kuldeep ...........................37 (29b 4x4 1x6) Williamson c&b Kuldeep ..................11 (14b 1x4) Mitchell c Rohit b Shami ...................63 (10b 3x4 1x6) Latham lbw Jadeja ............................14 (30b) Phillips b Chakravarthy ...................34 (52b 2x4 1x6) Bracewell (not out) .............................53 (40b 3x4 2x6) Santner (run out) ...................................8 (10b) Smith (not out) .......................................0 (1b) Extras (LB-3 W-13) ...........................16 TOTAL (for 7 wkts 50 overs) ......251 Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Young) 2-69 (Ravindra) 3-75 (Williamson) 4-108 (Latham) 5-165 (Phillips) 6-211 (Mitchell) 7-239 (Santner) Bowling: Shami 9-0-74-1 (w-1) Pandya 3-0-30-0 (w-3) Chakravarthy 10-0-45-2 (w-3) Kuldeep 10-0-40-2 (w-1) Axar 8-0-29-0 (w-1) Jadeja 10-0-30-1. 

INDIA Rohit st Latham b Ravindra ............76 (83b 7x4 3x6) Gill c Phillips b Santner .....................31 (50b 1x6) Kohli lbw b Bracewell ..........................1 (2b) Iyer c Ravindra b Santner ................48 (62b 2x4 2x6) Axar c O’Rourke b Bracewell ..........29 (40b 1x4 1x6) Rahul (not out) .....................................34 (33b 1x4 1x6) Pandya c & b Jamieson ....................18 (18b 1x4 1x6) Jadeja (not out) .....................................9 (6b 1x4) Extras (W-8) ............................................9 Total (for 6 wkts 49 overs) ........254 Fall of wickets: 1-105 (Gill) 2-106 (Kohli) 3-122 (Rohit) 4-183 (Iyer) 5-203 (Axar) 6-241 (Pandya) Bowling: Jamieson 5-0-24-1 (w-1) O’Rourke 7-0-56-0 Smith 2-0-22-0 Santner 10-0-46-2 Ravindra 10-1-47-1 Bracewell 10-1-28-2 Phillips 5-0-31-0. Result: India won by 4 wkts. PoM: Rohit Sharma. PoS: Rachin Ravindra.