5 of India’s biggest ICC Champions Trophy victories
India will walk out at Edgbaston on June 4 to start their ICC Champions Trophy defence and that too against arch-rivals Pakistan. The men in blue will have good memories from the previous edition which was also held in England back in 2013. India were unbeaten throughout the tournament and ultimately emerged victorious beating the hosts by a narrow margin of 5 runs in a rain-curtailed final match.
Moreover, most of the players from the previous edition like Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and others are going to play in this edition as well. And their experience in these conditions will prove to be vital in their title defence. Shikhar Dhawan was the Man of the Series in the previous edition and also the leading run-scorer in the tournament. He will look to continue the good work with the bat in this edition as well.
Also read: ICC Champions Trophy: Why India should have made left-field selections
Moreover, India also hold the most number of Champions Trophy titles along with Australia (2). This will be the eighth edition of Champions Trophy since it started way back in 1998 and team India has given us numerous memorable victories to cherish in this time period. Let us now have a look at 5 of those biggest victories for India in Champions Trophy encounters:
#1 India vs South Africa, Nairobi 2000 (Won by 95 runs)
It was the second semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy, then known as the ICC Knock Out tournament, and India were up against a strong South African side. Winning the toss, the Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly chose to bat first and he led the way with an unbeaten inning of 141 runs which was studded with 11 fours and 6 huge sixes.
Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh made useful contributions of 39 and 41 respectively to help India to a total of 295/6 in their 50 overs.
A strong South African batting line-up was expected to chase the total down. However, the Indian bowlers kept striking at regular intervals to bowl South Africa out for 200 runs inside 41 overs.
Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar picked up a couple of wickets each whereas Ganguly, Venkatesh Prasad and Yuvraj Singh chipped in with a wicket each. Thus, India won by a big margin of 95 runs and Sourav Ganguly was adjudged the ‘Man of the Match’ for his unbeaten knock of 141.