India end 14-year drought, beat Australia to storm into Champions Trophy final

India defeated Australia by four wickets to qualify for the Champions Trophy 2025 final. This was also their first win against Australia in 14 years in an ICC knockout match. The last time India defeated Australia in an ICC knockout match was in the 2011 ODI World Cup quarter-final in Motera. Since then, they lost to Australia in the 2015 ODI World Cup semi-final and the World Test Championship and ODI World Cup final in 2023. Notably, with the win this time around, India qualified for the Champions Trophy final for the third consecutive time. They won the marquee tournament in 2013 by beating England in the summit clash but lost to Pakistan in the 2017 edition.

Batting first, Australia lost the wicket of Cooper Connolly rather early. He departed without opening his tally. Nevertheless, since his departure, Travis Head took over the business and was smacking boundaries for fun - similar to his knock in the 2023 ODI World Cup final. However, he failed to convert his start this time around, as the flamboyant batter departed for 39 runs.

After his dismissal, Steve Smith looked in fine touch as he kept the scoreboard ticking. He made 73 runs, which was key as one of the Australia batters had to keep going. Marnus Labuschagne supported him well but unlike the final in the 2023 ODI World Cup final, he couldn’t keep up with the



momentum. Josh Inglis too departed early and the pressure fell on Alex Carey, who played a terrific knock of 61 runs.

Courtesy of Smith and Carey’s knock, Australia posted 264 runs in the first innings. Mohammed Shami had a good day with the ball, picking up three wickets for India, while Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Chakravarthy picked up two wickets each.

When it came to the chase, in-form batter Shubman Gill departed early. Rohit Sharma was handed multiple lifelines as India were slightly on the back foot but the boundaries never stopped flowing. After being dropped on a couple of occasions, he changed his approach for a brief while before going berserk again and got out in the process.

Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer stitched a phenomenal partnership after that. They put 91 runs together and that slightly pushed Australia out of the contest. Shreyas eventually departed after scoring 45 runs while Virat added 84. Towards the fag end, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya showed glimpses of their class, scoring 42* and 28 respectively. Credit goes to Axar Patel as well, who added 27 runs after Iyer departed. 

With that, India won the game rather comfortably and Kohli was adjudged Player of the Match. It is also now confirmed that the final of the Champions Trophy will be taking place in Dubai.