Rohit Sharma-led India National Cricket Team faced off against Mitchell Santner-led New Zealand National Cricket Team in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

The match between Team India and Team New Zealand was played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, March 9.

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I want to appreciate everyone who came out and supported us – Rohit Sharma after India beat New Zealand

Both India and New Zealand gave their best in the final, but it was the Men In Blue who emerged victorious. After restricting the Kiwis to 251/7, India chased down the target with 6 balls remaining and won by 4 wickets.

Speaking during the post-match presentation ceremony, Rohit Sharma thanked the Dubai crowd for supporting Team India throughout the competition. He stated:

“I want to appreciate everyone who came out and supported us. The crowd here has been magnificent, it is not our home ground but they made it our home ground. The number of people that came here to watch us play, to give them that win was satsifying.”

“Not just this game but right through, our spinners in particular, there’s too much expectations when you are playing on a pitch like that. We do understand their strengths and used it to our advantage.”

Very solid mind, never gets over-rawed by the pressure around him – Rohit Sharma on KL Rahul

Rohit Sharma further showered rich praise on KL Rahul for playing well at No.6 in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and said:

“(on KL) Very solid mind, never gets over-rawed by the pressure around him, that’s the resason we wanted to have him in the middle phase, there’s a bit of calmness when he bats and picks the right shot to play to the situation, he gives the freedom to others to play freely like Hardik.”

Rohit Sharma signed off by talking about mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who turned out to be a game-changer for India in the competition and picked 9 wickets. He stated:

“(on Varun) He has got something different about him. When we are playing on such pitches we want the batters to do something different. He didn’t start off in the tournament for us, but when he played against New Zealand and picked up a 5-fer, we wanted to maximise that. He has great quality in his bowling. Very grateful, really appreciate their support and getting behind the team. When they come out and get behind the team it makes a huge difference.”

India Beat New Zealand In Their Previous ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Match As Well

India put up a strong all-round performance against New Zealand in their previous ICC Champions Trophy 2025 match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on March 2. They won the match by 44 runs and ended the group-stage campaign unbeaten.

Batting first, India faced early setbacks, losing three wickets within seven overs as Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli departed cheaply.

Then, the star batter Shreyas Iyer (79 off 98) joined forces with all-rounder Axar Patel (42 off 61) to lead India to the recovery. The duo batted well and stitched up a crucial 98-run stand that pushed the Kiwis on the backfoot for a while.

After Iyer and Axar got out, Hardik Pandya came with a good knock of 45 runs off 45 balls to help India finish with a total of 249/9 in their 50 overs.

While defending the score, India’s decision to play four spinners proved right as they choked the run flow and didn’t allow the Black Caps to score quickly.

The mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy was the star of the show as he registered match-winning figures of 5/42. He dismissed Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, and Matt Henry.

Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, and Axar Patel supported Varun very well as India bowled out New Zealand for 205 in 45.3 overs despite Kane Williamson’s brilliant knock of 81 runs.