BIRMINGHAM – India added the Champions Trophy to their 2011 World Cup title yesterday, beating England by five runs in a tense final that was reduced to 20 overs a side because of persistent early rain.
With 16 balls remaining, England needed 20 runs but imploded under the pressure and lost four wickets in the space of eight balls, finishing on 124 for eight in pursuit of a target of 130 under the floodlights at Edgbaston. The English are still without a global 50-over title.
India, though, cemented their status as king of One-Day cricket despite playing the tournament with
an inexperienced team and in the shadow of a match-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League that had blighted its build-up.
Virat Kohli, one of only three players remaining from the World Cup-winning line-up, top-scored for India with 43, rescuing the team’s innings when it was in danger of unravelling on 66 for five after 13 overs by sharing a crucial 47-run stand with Ravindra Jadeja (33 not out).
Fireworks went off in the stands and India’s players jigged with joy as they claimed the country’s first Champions Trophy title in the competition’s last edition.
“When we were batting I just said get close to 130. The shower helped us because the ball was gripping later on,” said India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“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.”
England will wonder how it let slip such a great opportunity, just like the team did in 2004 when they lost the Champions Trophy final to West Indies in the gloom of The Oval. England have also lost three World Cup finals.
“We’ve come up a little short. I thought we bowled well, you’d take 130. It’s tough to take at the moment,” said England captain Alistair Cook.
For the first time this tournament, India’s batting lineup – which hadn’t gone below No. 4 in four straight wins – struggled in the face of some tight bowling, particularly from the unassuming medium pace of Bopara.
The allrounder removed Shikhar Dhawan – voted the player of the tournament – for 31, soon after the dangerous opener had sent a lofted uppercut for six over backward point in one of the shots of the tournament, and then Suresh Raina (1) and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (0).
England captain Cook edged to first slip for two on the 11th ball. Ravichandran Ashwin took that catch then proceeded to bedazzle England’s top order, with the unusually aggressive Jonathan Trott stumped for 20 off 14 balls and Joe Root (7) lofting him to Ishant Sharma at deep backward square.
When Ian Bell was given out to the astonishment of England fans – stumped in a narrow call from the third umpire, England were 46 for four in the ninth over.
The pressure was mounting, the run-rate climbing to more than nine an over and the ball turning for India’s spinners as Eoin Morgan and Bopara just about survived.
After a big six over midwicket by Bopara on the last ball of the 15th over and a superb reverse sweep by Morgan five balls later, England needed 40 runs off 24 balls.
Having bowled two wides early in the 18th over, Sharma exacted major revenge by taking the key wickets of Morgan (33) and Bopara (30) in successive balls and narrowly missed snaffling a hat trick when a rising delivery skimmed past Tim Bresnan’s chin.
That turned the game. Four wickets went down in eight balls and England needed 15 off the last over by Ashwin.
Stuart Broad and James Tredwell could only manage nine. (AP)
