ON THIS DAY
Follow UsOn this day, India and England were involved in a thrilling 2013 Champions Trophy finale at Edgbaston and it was the Men in Blue who managed to emerge victorious by just five runs (DLS). The MS Dhoni-led side remained unbeaten throughout the tournament and the Ranchi stalwart became the first captain in the world to win all the ICC trophies. The match was reduced to 20 overs a side due to rain but the match turned out to be one of the best finals of all-time.
BACKGROUND
It was in the 2013 Champions Trophy, Rohit Sharma was promoted up the order and he formed a solid opening pair with Shikhar Dhawan. The two ended up as India's highest run-scorers and contributed over 55 percent of the total runs. After winning both their practice matches, India rode on Dhawan's brilliant century to defeat South Africa in the tournament opener. Their next two group games against West Indies and Pakistan were quite one-sided, and so was the semi-final against Sri Lanka. They won all the three encounters by eight wickets.
Meanwhile, England started off their campaign by defeating their arch-rivals Australia before going down to Sri Lanka by seven wickets. They beat New Zealand in their final group-stage match to cement their place in the semi-finals where they thrashed South Africa by seven wickets. The Alastair Cook-led side had the home advantage but it was India who were considered favourites because of the brand of cricket they were playing.
THE FINALE
There were a couple of rain interruptions and the match was reduced to 20 overs a side after India were asked to bat first on a surface that wasn't really suitable for batting. The Indian batting line-up struggled to plan their innings because of the two rain breaks and lost quite a few wickets just to get that run-rate high.
Rohit was knocked over by Stuart Broad in the fourth over but the tournament's leading run-getter Dhawan looked in sublime form. The left-handed opener looked fluent during his stay in the middle and scored 31 off 24 deliveries. Coming in at No. 3, Virat Kohli took his time to get going but kept the scoreboard moving alongside Dhawan. India were scoring at a decent rate but it all changed when Ravi Bopara came in to bowl his dibbly-dobbly medium pace.
Bopara got rid of the in-form Dhawan in his very first over and then also dismissed Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni for 1 and nought respectively to break the back of the Indian batting line-up. Dinesh Karthik too couldn't contribute much and it was up to Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja to take India to a fighting total. The surface wasn't easy to bat on as the ball was moving and the spinners were getting a decent amount of turn. Bopara finished with figures of 3 for 20 and found good support from the likes of James Anderson, Broad and offspinner James Tredwell.
The Men in Blue were 66 for 5 at the end of 13 overs when Kohli and Jadeja put on a 47-run stand for the sixth wicket. The two added those runs in 33 deliveries. Kohli was dismissed for a 34-ball 43 in the penultimate over but Jadeja stood tall till the very end. The left-hander slammed two fours and as many sixes in his 25-ball 33* and his two maximums in the final two overs led India to 129 for 7 in their 20 overs.
With not many on the board, the pressure was on the Indian bowlers. Cook was sent back in the second over but Jonathan Trott looked in solid touch straightaway from the moment he walked out to bat at No. 3. England were moving along nicely but the introduction of spin brought the turnaround. R Ashwin and Jadeja dismissed Trott, Joe Root and Ian Bell in the space of three overs and England were reduced to 46 for 4.
Then came the partnership between Eoin Morgan (30-ball 33) and Bopara (25-ball 30) that almost took the game away from India. The two added 64 runs for the fifth wicket and kept the scoreboard moving with calculated hitting and smart running between the wickets. The two brought the equation down to 28 off the last three overs and it was Ishant who was given the 18th over. The right-arm paceman had already gone for 27 in his three overs and despite Bhuvneshwar Kumar having an over left, it was Ishant who was given the responsibility.
Six on the second ball and then two consecutive wides, all England now needed were 20 runs off 16 deliveries. It looked like the ploy of bowling Ishant had backfired but then came a slower delivery and Morgan mistimed it straight into the hands of the mid-wicket fielder. Before the dust had settled, Bopara pulled one straight to the fielder at square leg and Ishant got rid of both the set batsmen off consecutive deliveries.
Jadeja then gave away only five runs in the 19th over and Ashwin was left with 15 to defend in the final over. Tredwell and Broad managed nine off the first five deliveries, leaving six to get off the final ball. Off the last ball, Ashwin got the ball to turn away from just outside off and Tredwell could only swing at thin air. India became only the second team after West Indies to win all three ICC trophies.
WHAT FOLLOWED?
Dhawan, with 363 runs, was given the golden bat.
Jadeja, with 12 wickets, was given the golden ball.
From 2007 to 2013, India won all three ICC trophies - T20 World Cup, 50-over World Cup and Champions Trophy - under the leadership of Dhoni but since then, the Men in Blue are yet to win a major tournament. Two T20 World Cups, two 50-over World Cups and a Champions Trophy, India have made it to the knockouts every single time but not once have they managed to get their hands on the silverware.
