Champions Trophy: Kiwis polished off with spin

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Varun Chakravarthy’s spectacular 5-42 powered India to a 44-run victory against New Zealand in their final group match of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. Shreyas Iyer’s solid 79 anchored India’s innings to 249. The win sets up a semifinal clash with Australia. India’s spinners, including Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel, effectively contained New Zealand’s batting lineup.

Varun leads tweakers’ super show with 5-42 after Shreyas’s solid 79 helps India to 249; Rohit & Co. Win by 44 runs, face Australia in Tuesday’s semifinal

DUBAI: Since the time he made a dream India comeback on Oct 6 at Gwalior, taking three for 31 to shape his team’s seven-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first T20I, ‘mystery spinner’ Varun Chakravarthy has been living a fairytale that no one would’ve imagined for him.

On Sunday night, the 33-year-old, playing just the second ODI of his career, spun a web around the New Zealand batting line-up, taking five for 42 in 10 overs to play a stellar role in his team’s 44-run win in the final group match of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. The irony is that Varun’s match-winning haul came at the Dubai International Stadium- the same venue where, after going wicketless for three matches in the T20 World Cup in 2021, he was dropped from the Indian team for the next three years.

Pulling off a tactical masterstroke, India unleashed as many as four spinners on a turning track, replacing pacer Harshit Rana with Varun. While Varun did the maximum damage, India’s other spinners Kuldeep Yadav (2-56 in 9.3 overs), Axar Patel (1-32 in 10 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-36 in eight overs) too revelled on a pitch which aided a fair bit of turn and bounce.

Finishing on top of Group A after winning all their three matches, India will thus square off against Australia at Dubai, hoping to avenge their defeat in the 2023 ODI World Cup final to the world champions, in the first semifinal on Tuesday, while the Kiwis will take on South Africa in the second semis clash at Lahore on Wednesday.

Appearing unplayable from his first over (10th of the innings) as his deliveries hissed around viciously, Varun wreaked havoc amongst the Kiwis as he took the wickets of Will Young (22, bowled by a googly that took the batter’s inside edge), Glenn Phillips (12, trapped lbw off a googly), Michael Bracewell (2, struck by a googly outside off-stump, but didn’t review, ball would’ve missed off-stump), Mitchell Santner (28 castled by a faster one) and Matt Henry (2, caught by Virat Kohli at long-off).

Having forced his way into India’s Champions Trophy team after picking 14 wickets in the five-match T20I series against England at home, Varun showed he can be a deadly spinner to face in the ODI format too, making a smashing Champions Trophy debut. The Tamil Nadu & Kolkata Knight Riders tweaker is now just the third Indian bowler to pick up a fiver in the tournament.

Varun and India’s other three spinners helped their team stave off a Kane Williamson masterclass on a spiteful pitch- a sublime 81 (120b, 7×4), as the Kiwis folded up for 205 in 45.3 overs, suffering their first defeat in the 2025 Champions Trophy, losing their last three wickets for just 10 runs in seven balls.

India got the perfect start when opener Rachin Ravindra (6) was caught brilliantly by a diving Axar Patel at third man off Hardik Pandya. Daryl Mitchell (17), who had slammed back-to-back hundreds against India in the 2023 ODI World Cup against India, fell lbw to Kuldeep Yadav in the 26th over. Tom Latham was trapped in front of the stumps while trying to reverse sweep Ravindra Jadeja in the 33rd over.

Earlier, continuing to prove his worth, Shreyas Iyer produced a composed half-century (79, 98b, 4×4, 2×6) under pressure but New Zealand, inspired by pacer Mark Henry’s fiver (five for 42 in eight overs) and some terrific fielding, managed to restrict India to 249 for nine.

Asked to bat first by the Black Caps, India’s top-order suffered a rare failure, as the 2023 ODI World Cup finalists collapsed to 30 for three in the seventh over, before Iyer put the innings back on track, sharing a 98-run alliance off 136 balls with Axar Patel (42, 61b, 3×4, 1×6) for the fourth wicket. Towards the end of India’s innings, Hardik Pandya (45, 45b, 4×4, 2×6) churned out a quick-fire innings to take the score to a respectable level.

While Henry bowled his heart out, the Black Caps set the stage on fire with their electric fielding, as Glenn Phillips took a blinder to catch Virat Kohli (11), playing in his 300th ODI, at backward point off Henry, and former captain Kane Williamson pouched another stunner at the same position to dismiss Ravindra Jadeja (16) off Henry.

Coming off scores of 59, 44 & 78 (against England in the home ODI series), and 15 & 56 in the Champions Trophy, the in-form Iyer, normally an aggressive batter, was restrained as he looked to do the rebuild job in the company of Axar.

Iyer’s best shot was a lofted six over long on off pacer Will O’Rourke for the 35th over. India could’ve finished with a much lower total but for Hardik’s lusty blows, which left the Black Caps with a 250-run chase.

Earlier, India were in dire straits as skipper Rohit Sharma (15), Shubman Gill (2) and Kohli were out cheaply. After starting off in his usual cavalier fashion, pulling pacer Mark Henry for a four and six, Rohit perished to the pull shot, as he skied the ball off Kyle Jamieson to Young at square leg.

Henry took the first of his five wickets when he trapped Gill, trying to place across, plumb in front. The 33-year-old Henry owed it to Phillips for getting Kohli’s wicket as the Kiwi pulled off a sensational grab out of thin air after the batter had unleashed a rasping square cut.

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