Champions Trophy: India and New Zealand will face each other in the title match after 25 years, know how their record has been

The title match of the Champions Trophy will be played between India and New Zealand on March 9. India defeated Australia in the semi-finals, while New Zealand defeated South Africa to enter the title match. After 25 years, once again these two teams will face each other in the title match of the ICC's limited overs format.

Will face off for the second time within eight days

India and New Zealand were included in Group A in the Champions Trophy. India defeated New Zealand in the last match of the group stage and now after a gap of eight days, both the teams will face each other once again. The teams of India and New Zealand have clashed in the final of ICC tournaments twice. The last time the final match of the World Test Championship (WTC) was played between the two teams was in 2021. In this title match which lasted for six days due to rain, the New Zealand team prevailed over India and the Kiwis defeated the Indian team by eight wickets.

25 years ago, Kiwis had broken India's dream

Interestingly, the last time both the teams played in the final of ICC's limited overs format was in 2000 in the ICC Knockout Trophy (now Champions Trophy). At that time, New Zealand won the title by defeating India by four wickets. In that match, the Indian team led by Sourav Ganguly scored 264 runs for six wickets in 50 overs, thanks to Ganguly's 117 runs and Sachin Tendulkar's 69 runs. In reply, the New Zealand team captained by Stephen Fleming successfully achieved the target. For the Kiwi team, Chris Cairns scored an unbeaten 102 runs off 113 balls and snatched victory from India.

New Zealand has been waiting for the ICC title for a long time.

Since then, New Zealand has never won the ICC white ball format tournament. The New Zealand team reached the finals of the 2015 and 2019 ODI World Cup, but both times it had to face defeat. Now it will face another final against the Indian team led by Rohit Sharma, which has reached the title match while remaining undefeated in the tournament.

On March 2, India and New Zealand had a match at the same Dubai International Cricket Stadium in which India had set a target of 250 runs in front of New Zealand. In this match, Team India was successful in defending the target due to the strong performance of Indian spinners led by Varun Chakraborty. Playing his first match of the Champions Trophy, Varun took five wickets and New Zealand fell behind the target.