Image courtesy of: The Indian Express
India were crowned the winners of the last ever Champions Trophy
England players and fans were left heart-broken as India lifted the coveted Champions Trophy after beating their arch-rivals in a Twenty20 sprint.
Virat Kohli boosted the Indian innings with a brilliant 43 as the last ever Champions Trophy drew to a close and will be replaced with the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Championship from 2017 onwards.
England captain Alastair Cook won the toss and decided to bowl first in dull conditions, much to the delight of all the English fans in attendance.
With the allotted number of overs having dropped from 50 to 20 due to the persistent rain, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni knew his men would have to get as many runs on the board as possible.
However, India’s innings got off to a rocky start as opener Rohit Sharma was dismissed early after being clean bowled by a peach of a delivery from pace bowler Stuart Broad.
Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli stabilised India’s innings as both batsmen scored runs in quick fashion.
Dhawan was caught by James Tredwell off the bowling of Ravi Bopara for 31, while Kohli fell seven agonising runs short of what would have been an excellent half-century.
Dhawan’s wicket must have energised Bopara, who had clearly come to the party tonight, as he snapped up the wickets of Suresh Raina and Dhoni in quick succession.
Spinner Ravindra Jadeja provided India with a last minute burst as his 33 off 25 deliveries, which included two boundaries and two sixes, helped the men in blue register a total of 129.
Bopara was definitely the pick of the England bowlers with three wickets, while James Anderson, Broad and Tredwell all took a wicket apiece.
Chasing just 130 to win, England found themselves in deep trouble after their top order crumbled to leave the scoreboard reading 46/4.
Eoin Morgan and Bopara brought England back into contention with some clean hitting as both players registered scores in the thirties before being dismissed.
Morgan made 33 runs off 30 deliveries, while Bopara scored 30 runs off 25 balls.
England’s chase was further dented by the wickets of Jos Buttler and Tim Bresnan, both of whom fell in quick succession.
With the runs needed and balls left coming right down to the wire, India produced one final surge of energy which was enough to get them across the line and leave England down on their knees.
Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma all took two wickets, while Umesh Yadav chipped in with a wicket as well.
Cook praised the groundstaff for their hard work, but admitted that he was “devastated” not to have taken the game as his side looked to be in complete control at one point.
“The first credit has to go the groundstaff to get a game,” he said. “We’ve come up a little short. I though we bowled well, you’d take 130. It’s tough to take at the moment. I think both sides found the pitch quite hard to bat on. You are always going to think of different reasons. I’m proud of the way the players have performed in this tournament. With 20-odd needed off 16 balls it was in our hands. There have been a lot of good performances, but at the moment we are a bit devastated.”
Meanwhile, Dhoni was pleased with his side’s performance throughout the tournament and also conceded that it felt special to win the final edition of the tournament.
“When we were batting I just said get close to 130,” he said. “The shower helped us because the ball was gripping later on. It’s important to be positive. I said ‘we are the No. 1-ranked team, let’s play like that’. I knew the two-overs of Powerplay were crucial. I wanted to make them slog off the spinners. They all handled the pressure really well, in international cricket people talk about technique but it’s the ones that deal with the pressure.”
Jadeja was the Man of the Match for his brilliant effort with both the bat and ball, and he said: “I did well throughout the tournament and I was very positive. It was quite difficult to rotate the strike, so myself and Virat just tried to build a good partnership. I was enjoying the bowling on this wicket. The skipper always backs me when I bowl.”
Jadeja was also awarded the Golden Ball for having taken the most wickets throughout the tournament.
The Golden Bat also went to another Indian player and it was no surprise when opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan’s name was announced as he had scored two back-to-back centuries in the tournament.
“I’d dreamt of this, I’m really happy with it,” he said. “The bouncy tracks suit my game. I worked hard in practice and in the warm-up games. It makes it more special because I was out of the side for a few years.”