India win Champions Trophy, Virat Kohli attributes team effort

India’s batting mainstay Virat Kohli has put India’s latest success in the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy down to crucial contributions throughout the team during the tournament.

In a repeat of the 2000 final (then known as ICC knockouts), India chased down their target of 252 with one over to spare after New Zealand posted 251 for seven from their 50 overs.

This was India’s third Champions Trophy title after the editions 2002 (when they were joint winners) and 2013.

Captain Rohit Sharma made 76 at the top of the order to set up the win after India’s spinners did a brilliant job of restricting their opponents with the bat.

For Kohli, an ICC Men’s Champion Trophy winner in 2013, people performing in high-pressure situations is the main reason India won.

“These are the things, after playing for so long, you look forward to,” he said.

“Being in situations where you are put under pressure, and you walk in, and you put your hand up.

“I think to win titles, which has been missing in the past, the whole team must step up in different games. And if you look at this tournament, over the course of five matches, everyone has put their hand up somewhere or another.”

Notable Indian performances during the tournament include Kohli’s very own unbeaten hundred against Pakistan and his 84 in the semi-final against Australia.

Other valuable contributions include Varun Chakravarthy’s five for 42 against New Zealand in the group stage, Shubman Gill’s unbeaten 101 against Bangladesh and Mohammed Shami’s bowling efforts throughout the entire tournament to finish as the joint-second highest wicket taker with nine scalps.

With 48 on the day to boost the Indian chase, Shreyas Iyer was another to underline his value with consistent impact.

Those efforts from his teammates are what pleased Kohli the most.

He added, “That is why we ended up winning this tournament. People have played such impactful knocks and produced such impactful spells, and it is only a collective effort that can win you a title.

“I am just so happy we were able to play as a unit and really enjoy ourselves. We have had such an amazing time as a team. It has been an amazing tournament for us.”

New Zealand’s captain Mitchell Santner praised the way India’s spinners bowled and pinpointed their bowling in the middle overs as a reason his side fell short of the score they wanted to post.

The quartet of Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja combined to bowl 38 overs, taking five wickets at an economy rate of less than four between them.

“It was good bowling,” Santner said when asked about why runs were hard to come by in parts of the game.

“We lost a couple of wickets after the powerplay and then they really got the squeeze on.

“It looked challenging to start with but credit to the way their spinners bowled, all four of them. They are world class bowlers, and they showed that again today.

“In the end, we were probably 20 under, maybe 25 under from what we wanted to get but we knew we had a total and we were going to fight and that is what we did.”

(With inputs from ICC)

Champions Trophy, ICC, Virat Kohli, Mitchell Santner, Dubai, Rohit Sharma