India better Pakistan's 21-year-old Champions Trophy record with magical spin display vs New Zealand

Champions Trophy 2025: India's spin magic on Sunday saw Varun Chakaravarthy take a fifer against New Zealand.

Currently in strong form, India finished the Champions Trophy 2025 group stage in an unbeaten note, topping Group A. Rohit Sharma and Co. defeaed New Zealand in their final Group A fixture by 44 runs to finish as Group A toppers, with both teams having already qualified for the semi-finals.

India's Varun Chakravarthy (R) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of New Zealand's captain Mitchell Santner. (AFP)

The match also saw Varun Chakaravarthy make his Champions Trophy debut, as he picked a five-fer in his second ODI, which also became the earliest by an Indian bowler in his ODI career. The previous record was held by Stuart Binny, who took 6/4 vs Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2014 in his third ODI.

India better Pakistan's 21-year-old Champions Trophy record

The run chase on Sunday saw New Zealand lose nine wickets to Indias spinners. It set the record for most wickets by spinners in an innings in Champions Trophy, bettering Pakistan’s eight vs Kenya in 2004.

Other than Varun’s 5/42 in 10 overs, Kuldeep Yadav struck twice, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel bagged a dismissal each respectively. Chasing a target of 250 runs, the Kiwis were bowled out for 205 in 45.3 overs, despite a half-century by veteran Kane Williamson (81).

Initially, Shreyas Iyer smacked 79 runs off 98 balls to take India to 249/9 in 50 overs. For New Zealand, pacer Matt Henry took a five-wicket haul.

Varun was also adjudged as Player of the Match for fifer, and revelled in his performance after the game. Speaking after the match, he revealed that he experienced nervousness in the early stages due to a lack of ODI experience. He went on to reveal that the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Iyer and Hardik Pandya helped him settle into the game by talking and helping him.

“First of all I did feel nervous in the initial stages. I have not played many matches for India in the ODI format but as the game went on I felt better. Virat, Rohit, Shreyas and Hardik were talking to me and that helped. (on when he knew he was playing this game) I found out last night. I was definitely expecting to play for the country but on the other side I was nervous. It was not a rank turner, but if you bowled in the right places it was giving help. The way Kuldeep, Jaddu and Axar bowled, even the pace bowlers, it was a total team effort,” he said.