India stave off New Zealand’s challenge to claim Champions Trophy title

India have ended 12 years without a major 50-overs title by beating New Zealand by four wickets and with an over to spare here in Dubai in the final of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. This gives Rohit Sharma his second major ICC trophy in nine months following last year’s T20 World Cup victory and leaves the Black Caps searching for just their second overall in 25 years. 

The win also makes Rohit the third Indian captain to lift the Champions Trophy after Sourav Ganguly in 2002 and MS Dhoni in 2013, that last win being India’s previous ICC ODI title win. 

Spin it to win it has been the refrain during the Dubai leg of this tournament and this was once again emphatically punctuated by India’s four slow men who combined to set their batting team-mates a target of 252 in the final here today. New Zealand lost five of their seven wickets to spin, with a relentless Kuldeep Yadav the stand-out bowler with the two biggest Black Caps wickets, and India got across the line in 49 overs after Rohit set the tone with a stroke-fueled 76. 

Rohit’s dismissal, stumped when charging out to the Player of the Tournament, Rachin Ravindra, came during a period in which New Zealand, led by their own excellent spin quotient, threatened to make a fist of it. A third sensational one-handed grab in this Champions Trophy from Glenn Phillips gave the Black Caps skipper Mitchell Santner the first wicket of the innings, thus snapping a century stand, and when Michael Bracewell – who earlier had smacked 53* off 40 deliveries to get the first innings to 251 – struck first ball with the dismissal of Virat Kohli for 1, a wobble was on. Sixteen runs later, Rohit was out to leave India at 122/3.

The under-rated Shreyas Iyer (48) combined with Axar Patel (29) to put on 59 before both fell trying to play heroic shots when simple strike rotation would have finished the job. Iyer, dropped on 44 off Phillips by Kyle Jamieson running in from long-on, added four to his score and then tried to find the boundary again only to be brilliantly held by a tumbling Ravindra at fine leg. Axar also took the aerial root and gave a catch to Will O’Rourke off Bracewell as India slipped to 203/5.

Hardik Pandya made a run-a-ball 18 before he was bounced out by Jamieson with victory 12 runs away, but that was the last success for the Black Caps. KL Rahul added another unbeaten innings to his name with 34* off 33 – “I don’t think I can say this on camera but I was shitting myself” he would say after the nervous chase – and Ravindra Jadeja hit the winning four to send the packed Dubai stadium into raptures. 

Following the match, among other emotional statements, the Player of the Match, Rohit, said he took a lot of personal pleasure from his innings but sweetest was winning the Champions Trophy with his team unbeaten. 

After Rohit lost his 12th toss in a row, the advantage was all New Zealand’s on a very dry strip. And when their openers raced way to 57 inside eight overs, during which time two catches went down and Mohammed Shami briefly left the field for attention on his fingers after putting down one of those chances, it appeared as if the Black Caps were onto something special.

But this is Dubai, after all, and the introduction of spin put a brake on the run-scoring and brought India right back into the game. Varun Chakravarthy spanned the threatening stand and Kuldeep Yadav took two in the span of eight deliveries as New Zealand lost three wickets for 18 runs. 

Chakravarthy’s first over went for nine without a boundary struck in it, and his second was eventful. A loud appeal for lbw, which was given out and then successfully reviewed by Ravindra, a dropped catch in the deep by a running Iyer and then the first wicket of the game, as Will Young played all over a legbreak to be pinned in front of the stumps. 

Cue the introduction of Kuldeep, who with his first delivery of the match bowled Ravindra for 37 when the batsmen was undone by the length and unsure whether to play forward or back. The googly took clipped Ravindra’s pads and then rattled the stumps, giving Kuldeep a massive wicket first up to bring the entire Indian team together. In Kuldeep’s second over, Kane Williamson played forward to try and smother the spin but ended up popping back a catch to the bowler. 

Next into India’s spin list was Axar who bowled his first four overs for just 13 runs with one boundary conceded, but it was the fourth spinner that produced the fourth wicket. Tom Latham, whose ability to play spin has often been a thorn in India’s side, went for a conventional sweep against Jadeja and paid the price. Latham reviewed the lbw decision, more out of desperation given New Zealand’s situation than the nature of the delivery, but in vain. 

An 81-ball barren run between boundaries ended when Phillips advanced to strike Kuldeep for six in the 27th over. As a threating partnership started to form, Gill put down a catch when Phillips was on 27 but the drop did not cost a lot, for o 34 the Kiwi batsman failed to pick a Chakravarthy googly and was bowled trying to cut. 

Daryl Mitchell raised his fifty from 91 balls before he fell to a clever pace-off delivery from Shami – who had a poor outing with 74 conceded in nine overs – and Bracewell underlined his batting potential by swatting two sixes in his unbeaten 53. But 251 proved insufficient to stop India from winning the trophy.