With the Champions Trophy almost upon us, there has been a lot of buzz around whether India will be able to retain the trophy it won in 2013. Over the years too, India has produced some brilliant performances in the Champions Trophy and have performed relatively well in the tournament. Here is India’s top 5 moments in the Champions Trophy:
- Sachin Tendulkar, 1998:
Back when the tournament was called the ICC Knockout Trophy, India played Australia at Dhaka. Sachin Tendulkar, who came to bat when India was reeling at 8-2, scored a belligerent 141 off 128 and struck century partnerships with both Dravid and Jadeja to take India to 307-8. He also returned and took 4 scalps while bowling to hand India a comprehensive win over one of the strongest cricketing teams of the time.
- Sourav Ganguly, 2000:
The Indian captain at the time, Sourav Ganguly made the world sit up and take notice of his big-match ability. Against the South Africans in the semis of the 2000 edition, India were batting first and looking to hit a big score. Ganguly stepped up and smashed a brilliant 141* off 142 balls to set SA a massive target of 296 which they could not hit, thus leading India to the final.
- Zaheer Khan, 2002:
In the group stage match against Zimbabwe, India looked comfortable after setting a target of 289. They would not have expected Andy Flower to come out all guns blazing and it looked like he would take the match against them. However, Zaheer Khan popped up and took 4-45 to somehow restrict them to 274 and winning India the match.
- Ravindra Jadeja, 2013:
Playing the West Indies, India was looking to get some early inroads in the first innings. The batsmen were cruising and Dhoni introduced Jadeja and the rest is history. He struck in his second over itself before going on to scalp 4 more wickets and reducing the West Indies to a mere 233 runs. His 5-36 was his only fifer in ODI cricket but it was the beginning of a very fruitful spell in the Indian squad for Jadeja.
- Shikhar Dhawan, 2013:
Shikhar Dhawan’s first ever century for India was a classy one. The left-hander scored a quickfire 114 off just 94 balls as India set the ball rolling in a successful campaign. Dhawan went on to perform brilliantly in the tournament and demolished bowlers en route to the trophy that India won for the first time under Dhoni’s leadership.
By Rohit Nair
