Dubai, March 5 (HS): The Indian team has made it to the final of the 2025 Champions Trophy. On Tuesday, thanks to Virat Kohli’s restrained innings in the semi-finals, India defeated Australia and successfully achieved the target of 265 runs. Kohli played an important innings of 84 runs in 98 balls and led the team to victory.

Kohli, who was chosen ‘Player of the Match’ after the match, said, In such a game, creating pressure is the most important, especially in big matches like semi-finals and finals. If you stay till the end and have wickets in hand, then the pressure on the opposing team increases and the game becomes easier.

India got the first setback at 30 runs, after which Kohli came to the crease. He first joined Shreyas Iyer (91-run partnership), then Axar Patel (44-run partnership) and finally KL Rahul (47-run partnership) to bring the team closer to victory. Hardik Pandya and Rahul together completed the formalities of victory.

Kohli hit only five fours and no sixes during his innings. 56 runs in his 84-run innings came from singles. He said that he adopted this strategy keeping in mind the condition of the pitch.

Kohli said, The situation was similar to the match against Pakistan. That day too I hit only seven fours in my innings. It was important for me to understand the situation and rotate the strike, because partnership was the most important on this pitch. My only aim was to make useful partnerships for the team.

Kohli looked restrained throughout the match and did not try to play a big shot until the 43rd over. But when he tried to hit a six on Adam Zampa’s googly, he was caught out at long on.

I kept myself calm at the crease and took singles to take my innings forward. When a batsman starts feeling proud of taking singles, he is batting well and moves towards building long partnerships, Kohli said.

Now India awaits its opponent in the final. The second semi-final will be played between New Zealand and South Africa in Lahore on Wednesday. India will face its winner in Dubai on Sunday.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar