OTD- India beat England in a nail-biting thriller to clinch Champions Trophy in 2013

On this day in 2013, India etched their name in cricketing history by clinching the Champions Trophy. The tournament, held in England, witnessed a remarkable display of skill and determination from the Indian cricket team. With a young and passionate team, former India skipper MS Dhoni led India to beat England in the finals. So today in this article, let’s relive the historic victory.

The whole tournament was troubled by the English summer rains and that did not spare finals too. The match was shortened from 50 overs per side to 20 overs. England skipper Alastair Cook won the toss and elected to field first. The new opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan failed to put up a show in the finals as they did in the rest of the tournament. Rohit scored just 9 runs off 14 balls while Dhawan scored 31 runs off 24 balls with the help of two boundaries and a six.

After the Indian middle order collapsed with Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni failing to make substantial contributions. They scored 6, 1 and 0 respectively. However, this didn’t hurt India’s confidence as Virat Kohli along with allrounder Ravindra Jadeja added 47 runs for the sixth wicket. Kohli in his innings scored 43 runs off 34 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six. On the other hand, Jadeja in his innings scored 33 runs off 25 balls with the help of two boundaries and two sixes. With their heroism, India posted a decent score of 129/7 in 20 overs.

Ishant Sharma steps up for India

Chasing 130 runs in the finals of the Champions Trophy England failed to hold nerves. Opener Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Joe Root and Ian Bell were dismissed for cheap. They scored 2, 20, 7 and 13 respectively. However, after their departure, Eion Morgan and Ravi Bopara added 64 runs for the fifth wicket. Bopara in his innings scored 30 runs off 25 balls with the help of two sixes while Morgan in his innings scored 33 runs off 30 balls with the help of three boundaries and a six.

In the end, England needed 20 runs off 16 balls with Morgan and Bopara set on the crease. However, MS Dhoni called Ishant Sharma to bowl who has been expensive in his previous spell. Ishant conceded a boundary on the first ball before getting Morgan and Bopara on two consecutive deliveries. This set the tone for a comeback as in the next over Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Jos Buttler and scripted a historic victory for India as the hosts fell 5 runs short of the target. Jadeja won the Man of the Match award as he scored 33 runs and clinched two wickets. Apart from him, Ishant and Ashwin also got two wickets each while Umesh Yadav clinched a wicket too.