After leading Team India to Champions Trophy triumph, skipper Rohit Sharma declared it a cricketing ‘milestone,’ as his team justified their status as pre-tournament favourites with a 4-wicket victory over New Zealand in Dubai.
“I mean, honestly speaking, someone was telling me in this ICC tournaments, we have lost only one game in the last three ICC tournaments that we played. So, it's a great, great milestone to have honestly speaking. And that speaks what kind of team this is. So, I know we didn't win the World Cup. but we lost that final, but then we went to T20 and not lost a single game and went on to win the trophy and here as well. So it shows a lot of quality in the team, a lot of depth, a lot of understanding within the group, a lot of enjoyment, a lot of excitement and that is how we want to play our cricket and that is what we had spoken before the tournament begin. We wanted to enjoy. There's too much pressure from the outside. One game India loses, or it goes here and there. There's so much speculation that happens, but the boys and the team have actually managed to put that aside and just focus on how to win games and how to enjoy the game. So that has been the most important aspect of our, you know, game in the last 2 or 3 years that we've played," Rohit said in the post-match press conference.
Chasing 252 to win, India made a flying start as captain Sharma brought up his half-century from 41 balls to help steer his side to 100 without loss after 17 overs.
However, India proceeded to lose three wickets for 17 runs after the drinks break and it took an important 48 from Shreyas Iyer and 34 not out from KL Rahul to reach the victory target with an over to spare.
New Zealand, who had won the toss and elected to bat first, had earlier reached 69 for one from the first 10 overs, with openers Will Young and Ravindra putting on 57 for the first wicket.
However, India's spin attack wrestled control of the contest as they took the first five wickets to fall and helped restrict New Zealand to 251 for seven from their 50 overs.
