The form book was respected and Australia, the EPITOME OF CONSISTENCY and incidentally the defending champion, retained the trophy. In the final at Centurion, Australia defeated its Trans-Tasman rival New Zealand by six wickets.
Originally scheduled for 2008 in Pakistan, the sixth edition of the ICC Champions Trophy was postponed by a year. The venue, too, was overlooked owing to security concerns. South Africa hosted the event in 2009 and if change was the defining essence, be it with regard to the host or the year, conformity seemed to be the guiding principle when the actual cricket happened on the turf.
THE FORM BOOK was respected and Australia, the epitome of consistency and incidentally the defending champion, retained the trophy. In the final at Centurion, Australia defeated its Trans-Tasman rival New Zealand by six wickets. The result added to the aura of Ricky Ponting’s men.New Zealand suffered the vagaries of fate as its regular skipper Daniel Vettori pulled a hamstring and had to sit out, and Brendon McCullum had the unenviable task of taking the captaincy hot seat in a big final.
Australia remained undefeated through the tournament. Ponting’s men vanquished the West Indies by 50 runs; were locked in a no-result in a rain marred game against India; won a two-wicket thriller off the last delivery against Pakistan; crushed England by nine wickets in the semifinal and in the summit clash, rode on off-spinner Nathan Hauritz’s three for 37 and Shane Watson’s unbeaten 105 to humble New Zealand.
This story is from the June 3, 2017 edition of Sportstar.
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This story is from the June 3, 2017 edition of Sportstar.
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