New Zealand beat South Africa by 50 runs to enter the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 finals. South Africa was chasing 363, which they could not achieve because of losing wickets in the middle overs to eventually lose their way completely towards the end. David Miller’s century went in vain while Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra’s centuries powered New Zealand to 362/6.
From team SA, Rassie van der Dussen (69) and Temba Bavuma (56) collected the highest runs and Lungi Ngidi (72) and Kagiso Rabada (70) of the New Zealand team secured the highest runs. Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada took three and two wickets respectively in favour of New Zealand. From South Africa, bowlers Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry and Glenn Phillips took three, two and two wickets, respectively.
Williamson also became the first batter from New Zealand to achieve the landmark of 19,000 international runs by completing 102 runs in the semifinals. South Africa goes out of the tournament, as the team could not battle New Zealand during the times of pressure.
ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Finals
In the ICC Champions Trophy finals scheduled for Sunday, 9th March, India will come face to face with New Zealand. The highly anticipated finale will take place at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the UAE. The venue offers balanced conditions and a pleasant weather. The final match will start at 2:30 PM IST and will be streaming on JioHotstar.
Historically, New Zealand holds an edge in ICC tournaments against India.
They defeated India in the highly popular semi final clash of the 2019 World Cup in England. This will be an intense battle as India will aim to improve and get back home the champions trophy title, which they last won in 2013 and lost out on in the Finals of the last edition in 2017.
While New Zealand and India both look complete on paper, the Kiwis are punching above their weight that the India team should be careful about. New Zealand will look to break their limited over trophy draught as they reached the finals of ODI World Cup in 2015 an 2019. New Zealand was also the semi finalist in 2023 World Cup, in which they lost to India in Mumbai.
