India dropped Rachin Ravindra in consecutive overs in the 2025 Champions Trophy final at Dubai.
Ravindra came out to open the batting with Will Young after New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and opted to bat in the Champions Trophy final. Matt Henry, the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, had injured his shoulder in the semi-final and was forced to miss the final.
After three cautious overs, Ravindra went after Hardik Pandya in the fourth. He pulled the fourth ball for six, and opened the face of the bat to place the fifth to the point boundary. When Pandya pitched short, Ravindra pulled the sixth ball to the fence.
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Final, India vs New Zealand
In the next over, bowled by Mohammed Shami, Ravindra played a gorgeous stroke, using his wrists to whip the ball to the mid-wicket boundary. Shami switched to round the wicket and found the edge off the next ball – but Ravindra’s batting had forced Rohit Sharma to take the slip away. The ball sped to the boundary.
Rohit replaced Pandya with Varun Chakravarthy, who began with a wide that ran to the fence but pulled things back thereafter. At 46-0 after six overs, New Zealand seemed ahead in the final.
By now looking ominous, Ravindra tried to drive the third ball of the next over back. Shami, still in his follow-through, grassed the chance, evoking memories of the semi-final, where he had dropped Travis Head off his own bowling in the first ball of the match.
Varun began the next over with a ball down the leg-side. KL Rahul held the ball, appealed, and got the decision in his favour, but Ravindra’s review revealed that it had been a wide.
Ravindra slogged the next ball towards wide long-on. Sprinting to his right from deep mid-wicket, Shreyas Iyer dived at the last moment and got his hands to the ball but could not hold on. The batters ran two, and New Zealand were soon 57-0 after 7.4 overs. With four fours and a six, Ravindra had raced to a 24-ball 34.
However, Varun trapped Young leg-before. Rohit introduced Kuldeep Yadav immediately after the powerplay. Kuldeep bowled Ravindra (37 in 29) with his first ball. With his seventh, he caught Kane Williamson off his own bowling. At the time of writing, New Zealand were 83-3 with Daryl Mitchell (9) and Tom Latham (2) at the crease.
