DUBAI – India beat Pakistan by six wickets in the much-anticipated clash of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai on Sunday evening.
Chasing a below-par 242-run target for the victory, India crossed the finish line for the loss of four wickets in 42.3 overs.
Player of the match Virat Kohli was the top scorer for India with 100 not out, followed by Shreyas Iyer who made 56. Shubman Gill made 46, skipper Rohit Sharma 20 and Hardik Pandya 08 runs. Shaheen Shah Afridi took two wickets while Abrar Ahmed and Khushdil Shah got one wicket each.
On reaching 15 in this innings, Kohli Kohli became the fastest batter to reach 14,000 ODI runs. He took 287 innings to reach 14,000 runs, going past Sachin Tendulkar who took 350 innings.
After opting to bat first, Pakistan lost two quick wickets after 41 runs opening partnership between Babar Azam (23) and Imam-ul-Haq (10). Saud Shakeel (62) and skipper Mohammad Rizwan (46) put Pakistan back on track by stitching 104 runs partnership for the third wicket.
But after that Pakistan kept losing wickets at crucial stages and were bundled out at 241 runs in 49.4 overs. Khushdil Shah contributed a valuable 38 runs at the later stage, Salman Agha 19, Naseem Shah 14, Haris Rauf 08 and Tayyab Tahir 04 runs. Kuldeep Yadav bagged three wickets, Hardik Pandya two and Axar Patel, Harshit Rana and Ravindra Jadeja one each, while Imam-ul-Haq was run out.
Pakistan made one forced change in the Playing XI, bringing in Imam-ul-Haq in place of Fakhar Zaman who was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. India fielded the same Playing XI that beat Bangladesh in the first match.
Pakistan Playing XI: 1 Babar Azam, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Saud Shakeel, 4 Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), 5 Salman Agha, 6 Tayyan Tahir, 7 Khushdil Shah, 8 Shaheen Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed
India Playing XI: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Axar Patel, 6 KL Rahul (wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mohammed Shami
