Champions Trophy: One Final Time

As you wait for the final of the final edition of the Champions Trophy, take a look at what happened on the previous six occasions.

  1.  FIRST STRIKE: November 1, 1998: After being asked to bat first by South Africa in Dhaka, the West Indies put together a total of 245 all out riding on opener Philo Wallace’s knock of 103. Man-of-the-match Jacques Kallis took 5/30 for the West Indies. In response, the late Hansie Cronje (61*) took the Proteas out of troubled waters; and happily accepted the trophy from the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the 4-wicket win.

  2.  THESE KIWIS CAN FLY: October 15, 2000: Sourav Ganguly’s knock of 117, powered India to what they would have thought was a winning total- 264/6. Bangalore boys Venkatesh Prasad and Anil Kumble, along with Sachin Tendulkar reduced New Zealand to 132/5. As the Indians were dreaming of the holding aloft the trophy in Nairobi, Chris Cairns decided that he would play spoilsport. The Man-of-the-Match mashed 102*, with a fair bit of assistance from Chris Harris (46), to take the Kiwis home with two balls remaining.

  3.  NEIGHBOURS MUST LEARN TO SHARE: 2002: The final was held twice at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The first one saw India shave 14 runs off Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 244/5, when the rain gods told cricket fans that they too wanted to watch. On 30th September, a second attempt was made at deciding a winner, and Sri Lanka began by scoring 222/7. Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar were batting with the team’s score at 38/1, when the heavens decided to open up yet again. India and Sri Lanka shared the title.

                                             

 4.    WI ARE THE CHAMPIONS: September 25, 2004: One doesn’t always give a team a chance, when they are struggling at 147/8 against England, with 71 runs still needed for victory. But Courtney Browne (35*) and Ian Bradshaw (34*) decided that that they weren’t really keen on getting marooned on the island of defeat. The duo put together 71 runs for the 9th wicket to take the West Indies to victory, with seven balls remaining at the Kennington Oval.

 5.   DON’T PUSH IT: November 5, 2006: The West Indies were shot out for 138, and there was no way Australia were going to lose from there on in Mumbai. Shane Watson (57*) and Damien Martyn (47*) had no trouble taking them home to an eight-wicket win. Their win was however overshadowed by an unsavoury incident on the podium, when Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn shooed BCCI President Sharad Pawar off the stage.

 6.   SECOND HELPING: October 5, 2009: New Zealand were reduced to 200/9 by Australia, after their skipper Brendon McCullum won the toss and decided to bat first. In reply, Shane Watson led from the front with 105*, surviving some anxious moments before taking the Aussies to a 6-wicket win in Centurion.