Kuldeep Yadav rubbished the talks of poor form with the wicket of a set Rachin Ravindra off his first ball in the Final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 between India and New Zealand. (Match Blog | Full Coverage | More Cricket News)
New Zealand had raced to 69 in the first powerplay with the left-handed Ravindra taking on Indian pacers early on in the game. As soon as the field opened up India skipper Rohit Sharma introduced Yadav into the attack.
The left-arm wrist spinner had gone wicketlesss in the semifinal of the tournament and that had led to some questioning his ability to perform in big games. The talks around his big match ability had led to the legendary R Ashwin coming into Yadav's defence by saying how the wrist spinner was bowling well even though the numbers could not capture it.
Yadav proved Ashwin right as soon as he got the ball on Sunday's Final.
Ravindra, batting on 37 off 28, could not read Yadav's first ball which was a good length googly. The left-hander was stuck in his crease and the ball sneaked through his bat and pad to crash into the stumps.
India got their second wicket to push New Zealand back in the game. Yadav brought further damage to the Kiwi batters as in his second over, he dismissed Kane Williamson.
The former Kiwi captain was beaten in flight trying to just play a forward defence. The ball lobbed up off Williamson's bat and Yadav completed an easy catch to take his second wicket and put New Zealand under massive pressure.
Earlier, things went New Zealand's way as India dropped two catches. First, Mohammed Shami could not take a catch off his own bowling to get rid of Ravindra. The left-hander offered another chance soon as he launched Varun Chakravarthy towards the mid-wicket boundary where Shreyas Iyer put down a difficult diving catch.
However, despite the missed chances India had the upper hand in the game thanks to the double blow from Yadav. The Kiwis had crossed 100 in the 19th over with Daryl Mitchell and Tom Latham trying to rebuild the innings.
