IND vs NZ 2000 final revisited: Can India avenge 25-year-old heartbreak?

Rohit Sharma-led Indian team will take on Kiwis in Dubai on Sunday and will aim to lift their third Champions Trophy title

India are set to meet New Zealand in the ICC Champions Trophy final in Dubai on Sunday. The Rohit Sharma-led team start as favourites; however, one should remember that the last time these two sides met in a Champions Trophy final 25 years ago, it was the Blackcaps who prevailed.

 

Coming off a great win against Australia in the quarter-final and a dominant performance against South Africa in the semi-final, India met New Zealand in the final of the 2000 Champions Trophy, which was then called the ICC KnockOut, in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

This was the first ICC tournament that India played under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly, who had become captain only a few months earlier after the match-fixing scandal rocked Indian cricket.

 

 

Also, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan were making their One-Day International (ODI) debuts in the tournament and had shown tremendous potential. Both of them, especially Yuvraj, had played a major role in defeating Australia earlier in the tournament.

 

New Zealand also had a new skipper in Stephen Fleming, and the team was not particularly experienced.

 

"We had a number of young players that were just starting out international careers," said Kiwi middle-order batter Craig McMillan in an interview with ESPNcricinfo.

 

Interestingly, after defeating Pakistan in the semi-final, New Zealand reached the final of an ICC tournament for the first time ever.

 

New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first at the Nairobi Gymkhana Club. But it seemed that there was no initial help for the bowlers, as Indian openers Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar smashed the Kiwi seamers all over the park.

 

Ganguly continued his golden run and scored back-to-back centuries. He made 117 (130) in the final and became the leading run-scorer of the tournament. Tendulkar scored a fine 69 (83), and the duo put on an opening stand of 141 runs.

 

However, the unsatisfactory performance of the middle-order batters ensured that India did not finish well and fell short of the 280-run mark, which at one time seemed easily achievable.

 

New Zealand had to score 265 to lift the trophy, but the Trans-Tasman nation had chased down a 250+ total in an ICC tournament match only thrice before, the latest being in the semi-final of this competition.

 

New Zealand did not have a great start as they lost two wickets, including that of skipper Fleming, within the first six overs. The Kiwis had lost half their side by mid-innings, but the positive for them was that they had maintained their run rate.

 

No one had thought that all-rounder Chris Cairns would play the innings of his life and single-handedly take the Kiwis home. Cairns smashed an unbeaten 102* (113), during which he took the likes of Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, and Zaheer Khan to the cleaners. The power-hitter was ably supported by another all-rounder, Chris Harris, who scored 46 (72).

 

It is worth noting that lanky seamer Venkatesh Prasad kept India in the game by picking up three wickets for just 28 runs, but surprisingly, he was not given his full quota of 10 overs. Prasad was supported by part-time spinners Tendulkar and Yuvraj, who bowled with an economy of less than four and completed their full quota of 10 overs.

 

New Zealand won the final by four wickets with two balls to spare. Apart from Cairns' magnificent ton, India also lost the game due to conceding 23 runs in extras, while the Kiwis gave away only eight.

 

Things in cricket have changed dramatically since that final, but New Zealand has remained a bogey team for India in crucial matches. However, the Men in Blue have a great opportunity to take their 25-year-old revenge against the Blackcaps.