Virat Kohli, no stranger to major ICC feats, has been a key contributor to India’s recent success in the ICC Champions Trophy.
In a repeat of the 2000 final, New Zealand were 251 for 7 in their 50 overs, with India chasing their target of 252 with 100 to spare.
Skipper Rohit Sharma made sure of a 76-run knock after the Indian spinners did a brilliant job of restricting their opponents with the bat.
A winner of the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy in 2013, Kohli, a high-profile individual, has been instrumental in India’s triumph.
“After playing for so long, these are the things you expect” “When you are under pressure, when you come in, when you raise your hand.
“I think the whole team has to step up in different games to win titles that have been missing in the past. If you look at this somewhere, at the following point, someone has put a hand in it.”
Among the notable Indian performances were Kohli’s unbeaten century against the hosts and his 84 in the semi-final against Australia.
Varun Chakravarthy’s 5 for 42 against New Zealand in the group stage, Shubman Gill’s unbeaten 101 against the hosts and Mohammed Shami’s bowling efforts throughout the entire innings were also impressive.
Shreyas Iyer, who scored 48 to improve India’s chase, was another player who proved his worth by making consistent connections.
Kohli was more than happy with the efforts of his teammates. He said: “That’s why we won this. People are bowling so well, it’s only a collective effort that you can win a title if you bowl so well.
“I really like the way we were able to play and really enjoy ourselves. We had such a wonderful time as a team. It showed us that we were amazing.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner praised the way India’s spinners were bowled and pointed out that his team couldn’t get the runs they needed to get through the middle.
Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Akshar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja bowled a combined 38 runs, taking five wickets between them at an economy rate of less than four.
“Good bowling,” Santner said when asked why it was difficult to score in some parts of the game.
“We lost some wickets after the powerplay, and then they really got to us.
“The start was challenging, but we are happy with the way all four of their spinners bowled. They are world class bowlers, and they showed that today.
“In the end, we were often 20 runs below what we needed, sometimes 25 runs below, but we knew we had the total and we were going to fight, and we did that.”
