India captain Rohit Sharma became the first-ever captain to reach all four finals of ICC tournaments. With a four-wicket win in the Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final, Rohit created the unprecedented feat.
Rohit Sharma became the first-ever captain to reach the final of all four ICC tournaments. Under his leadership, India played the World Test Championship and ODI World Cup final in 2023, the T20 World Cup in 2024 and now, qualified for the summit clash Champions Trophy 2025. The Men in Blue defeated Australia in the semi-final to progress to the Champions Trophy final.
Chasing 265 runs in the match, India were put under pressure as they were reduced to 43/2 at one stage. Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer took control of the situation and stitched a valuable partnership of 91 runs. After Shreyas departed for 45 runs, Axar Patel played an important knock of 27 to help the scoreboard ticking. Kohli, on the other hand, didn’t change his template and with the help of five boundaries, he made 84 runs.
Later, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya played terrific knocks of 42* and 28 runs respectively as India won the match by four wickets. After the match, captain Rohit was happy with how the batters dictated the game in the second innings. He noted that the pitch wasn’t much friendly but added that the batters were clinical to get the job done.
“Halfway through the game, we felt like it’s a reasonable score. We had to really bat well to get that score because the nature of the pitch doesn’t allow you to just come in and keep playing the way you want to play. We were very clinical with the bat. Yes, we got the runs in the 48th over, but I thought we were calm and composed in our chase,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
“When we were batting, we were very calm. We wanted that big partnership which Shreyas and Virat had, which was really good. And then, the small partnerships between Axar and Virat and then KL and Virat and then that match-winning partnership. Towards the end, it may not look big runs, but those shots in the end by Hardik were very crucial,” he added.
India will take on the winner of the match between South Africa and New Zealand in the final, slated to take place on March 9 in Dubai.
