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Varun Chakaravarthy’s five-wicket haul and Shreyas Iyer’s 79 helped India beat New Zealand by 44 runs in the 2025 Champions Trophy. India will face Australia in the semi-final.
Varun Chakaravarthy led India to a stunning win on his CT debut. (AP Photo)
Varun Chakaravarthy’s five-wicket haul and Shreyas Iyer’s 79 (98) shadowed similarly exemplary performances from Matt Henry (5/42) and Kane Williamson 81 (120) to help India beat New Zealand by 44 runs in the last group-stage match of the 2025 Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Having won all three matches in the league stage, India have sealed a first-place finish in Group A and will now play Australia, the second-place team in Group B in the semi-final at the same ground on Tuesday. New Zealand and South Africa will recreate the 2015 World Cup semi-final fixture in Lahore on Wednesday.
More to follow…
In the first innings, New Zealand’s pacers were able to make much better use of the early movement available on the pitch. Rohit Sharma put Matt Henry under pressure by manufacturing early boundaries but the pacer’s sharp nip-backer worked well against Shubman Gill, catching him LBW plumb in front in the third over.
A brief, dreamy Rohit-Virat Kohli partnership followed but soon, the skipper was beaten on the pull by Kyle Jamieson’s pace and he got caught by Will Young inside the circle for 15 (17). Nine balls later, Kohli, in his 300th ODI, tried to slash the bones out of a wide ball from Henry and ended up falling in the Glenn Phillips trap: the agile all-rounder flew to his right to catch a one-handed blinder, arguably the catch of the year so far.
Iyer and Axar got stuck in to do the opposite of dreamy. Their 98 runs together were scruffy, often hard to watch, but quite important against Mitchell Santner’s smart rotation of his bowlers.
Axar took a particular liking to the left-arm spinners, Iyer deliberately didn’t let William O’Rourke settle and understood his variations while both together smacked Michael Bracewell (completely ignoring his four-wicket haul in the last match against Bangladesh).
However, New Zealand exploited the duo’s strengths against them, as Rachin Ravindra found Axar’s top edge in the 30th over before O’Rourke’s short-ball barrage broke through Iyer’s technique in the 37th. Iyer, who struck at over 160 against the pacer, ended the brilliant battle at an innings-best score of 79 (98).
The final 14 overs were as much about New Zealand’s brilliance as India’s weaknesses. Santner had held some of his overs back and immediately came in to put a full stop on runs.
Rahul wilted under the combined pressure of finishing and keeping the innings intact, edging one behind against the spinner for 23 (29). Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya, the more designated finishers, hit Bracwell for 11 in the 41st over but the next four overs yielded only 17 runs. Jadeja fell trying to convert another tight over from Henry, slashing to point for Williamson to do a Phillips.
Jamieson and Henry went hard-length and on-the-body against Pandya, the tactic that’s becoming too obvious, and he could manage just five runs in the 47th and 48th overs.
The former overthought a bit in the 49th over and Pandya managed to pick a few boundaries off his slower ones but Henry showed more composure, conceding just five runs and taking two wickets in the 50th. It took him to five wickets in the innings, making him the first to achieve that against India in Champions Trophy.
Pandya showed another one of his vulnerabilities: on a couple of occasions, he just didn’t run on balls that could have got India easy doubles, in an apparent attempt to retain strike away from tailender Mohammed Shami at all cost. As he didn’t hit any boundaries on the last eight deliveries, it made a difference of at least five runs to the total — which could’ve cost the Men in Blue and might do so on another day.
- Location :
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
