New Zealand’s opening batter Will Young who made a 50 runs stand with Rachin Ravindra was dismissed by Indian mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy for 15 runs.
The 50 runs stand between Rachin and Will Young was just the second 50-plus opening partnership for New Zealand in an ICC ODI tournament knockout game (WC or CT), after 71 between Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill in the 2015 WC semi-final against South Africa in Auckland. Also the first 50-plus opening stand for New Zealand, as well as against India in the tournament.
Speaking of the match, New Zealand won the toss and opted to bat first where Rachin Ravindra and Will Young opened the batting while Mohammed Shami opened the bowling attack.
Right after losing the toss in the Champions Trophy Final, Indian captain Rohit Sharma scripted an unwanted record by equalling Brian Lara’s record for losing the most consecutive tosses as captain in ODIs.
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Most consecutive tosses lost by a captain in ODIs
- 12 Rohit Sharma (Nov 2023 – Mar 2025)*
- 12 Brian Lara (Oct 1998 – May 1999)
- 11 Peter Borren (Mar 2011 – Aug 2013)
New Zealand’s opening duo made a steady start as Indian bowlers consistently put pressure with the ball. But Rachin Ravindra in the fourth over bowled by Hardik Pandya struck a six and back-to-back boundaries and scored 16 runs off the single over.
Ravindra continued the momentum and struck another couple of boundaries off the next over by Shami. With an elevated performance from Rachin, New Zealand scored 37 runs without losing a wicket at the end of 5 overs.
Rohit Sharma introduced his trump card player Varun Chakaravarthy to bowl the sixth over but the spinner ended up leaking nine runs off the over. In the seventh over, Shami dropped Rachin while in the next over Shreyas Iyer again dropped Rachin.
But in the same over Chakaravarthy broke the 57 runs stand by dismissing Will Young for 15 runs.
