Dubai: A vintage Virat Kohli chase century and a coming-off-age blitz from Shubman Gill led India to a significant eight-wicket win over rivals Pakistan in the 2025 Champions Trophy under the lights of the Dubai International Stadium on Saturday. This was India’s second consecutive successful chase in the tournament and ensured Pakistan’s chances to qualify for the semi-finals were slim at best.
Like last time, the foundation was set by skipper Rohit Sharma, who waited just eight deliveries in the innings to take on Naseem Shah for a four and a six. Gill followed that up with two boundaries of his own to Shaheen Shah Afridi on the other end as the left-arm pacer missed his lengths trying to search for a swing.
Rohit looked ready for a big one at 20 (15) and had hit a brilliant scooping drive over covers to Afridi when the pacer hit back, sneaking in a stunning yorker under his bat to bowl him. It was the sixth time Afridi got Rohit out in international cricket from just nine matches.
The wicket ball was eerily similar to the one that got Rohit LBW for a golden duck in the 2021 T20 World Cup. However, unlike that match, India had an in-form Gill waiting for Afridi.
Despite conceding five dots against Naseem in the sixth over, Gill didn’t take any pressure and showed off five sublime boundaries (and one streaky one through point) against Afridi in his next two overs. It not only shifted the momentum back in India’s favor but also saved Kohli from facing Afridi when his tail was up.
Kohli returned the favor when Gill was dropped by Khushdil Shah off Rauf’s bowling and the senior pro took on the express pacer with two boundaries soon after.
Gill looked in cruise mode on either side of the drop, which made Abrar Ahmed’s wicket of him even more special. The spinner set him up with a googly and followed it up with a beautiful carrom ball that pitched on middle-and-leg to whizz through and hit the top of off.
Kohli’s eyes widened at that, both for a meme-worth content and for India’s joy. His technique got even more compact as he played Abrar and Pakistan’s rotating pacers right under his eyes.
The inevitable fifty came on his 62nd ball and with Shreyas Iyer belligerent at the other end with his array of (rare but brilliant) reverse sweeps, the team’s run-rate only got better and better.
Iyer raced through yet another ODI half-century and got out trying to go a step further and an over-ambitious Pandya got consumed for 8 (6) in the moment as well. As the chase master raced against the remaining target to reach his hundred, Axar Patel helped him get the strike as much as possible.
With two runs required, Kohli was at 96 and smacked Khushdil through covers to reach his 51st ODI century and finish the game in the same moment.
India started the first innings quite shakily. Mohammed Shami bowled five wides in an 11-ball first over, which was the longest for an Indian in Champions Trophy history.
As Babar Azam capitalized with five boundaries in his first 25 deliveries, it felt like the Indian team got only 35 minutes to warm up before the toss due to Dubai’s traffic affecting their rhythm. But Babar’s poor form opened the door for them, as after hitting Hardik Pandya for a sumptuous cover drive on the first ball of the ninth over, he went chasing after the second, too, and ended up giving an easy catch to gloveman KL Rahul.
Imam-Ul-Haq, playing his first ODI since 2023, got run out for a sixth time in the format in the next over. He tried to drive Kuldeep Yadav to mid-on and steal a quick single but Axar beat him to the non-striker’s end with a rapid pick-up-and-throw — a nice throwback to Ravindra Jadeja’s run-out of Shoaib Malik in the 2017 edition of the same competition.
Though Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel put up a 104-run stand, it was all India’s dominance from there on. Axar and Kuldeep’s tight lines plus Pandya and Harshit Rana’s slower ones left them no option but to tick off singles and show that they were building towards something bigger.
But the rebuild took 24 overs and they managed just seven boundaries during that phase, which piled on the pressure. As the second drinks break was taken, the message from the dressing room seemed to be about shifting the momentum, which, on a slow pitch like this is like putting your frozen hand straight into the fire.
Rizwan tried it first and got dropped by Rana in the deep off Pandya’s bowling. In the next over, Axar went through his defenses. Within the next nine balls, Saud got dropped off Axar’s bowling and Pandya reaped the reward by getting him hole out to deep square leg off a well-aimed short ball, for 62 (76).
Jadeja bowled the ball-of-the-match to clean-bowl Tayyab Tahir and Kuldeep took two in two to get Salman Ali Agha and Shaheen Afridi cheaply and then Naseem Shah in the 47th over, both spinners continuing their love affair with the Men in Green.
Khushdil, who hit the first six of the match in the 42nd over, hit another against Shami in the 49th. Pacer Haris Rauf also tonked one on the second-last ball and then got run out on the next.
Rana took four more deliveries to take down Shah for 38 (39) and end the innings at a sub-par 241/10.
