Lahore, March 05 (HS): The title match of Champions Trophy 2025 will be played between India and New Zealand. In the second semi-final played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, New Zealand defeated South Africa by 50 runs. The brilliant centuries of all-rounder Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson played an important role in this victory. Although David Miller took out his anger on the Kiwi bowlers by hitting a quick 56 runs for the 10th wicket for the African team, but his unbeaten century could not give victory to the team. In this way, once again South Africa’s dream of winning the ICC tournament was shattered.

The African team, which came out to chase the target of 363 runs given by New Zealand, was progressing brilliantly for a time. It lost its third wicket in the 27th over at a total of 163 runs, when Rassie van der Dussen (69) was bowled by captain Mitchell Santner. After this, the team could not recover and lost its wickets one after the other. In the end, it could only score 321 runs after losing 9 wickets in 50 overs. Apart from Dussen, captain Temba Bavuma (56) scored a half century and David Miller (100*) scored an unbeaten century, but it was not enough for the team to win.

For New Zealand, Mitchell Santner took three wickets while Henry and Glenn Philip got two wickets each. At the same time, Michael Bracewell and Rachin Ravindra took one wicket each.

Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and batted first and scored a huge score of 362 runs. The pair of openers Will Young (21) and Rachin Ravindra tried to give the team a strong start. Meanwhile, Will Young fell prey to Lungi Ngidi. But Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson then decided to tire out the African bowlers. Both shared a 164-run partnership for the second wicket. In this over, both batsmen completed their centuries. Rachin Ravindra scored 108 and Williamson scored 102. New Zealand’s score was over 250 before 40 overs. In the last 10 overs, Glenn Phillips and Darrell Mitchell played quick innings for the Kiwi team and played an important role in taking the team’s score past 350. Darrell was dismissed after scoring 49 runs in 37 balls, while Glenn Phillips scored an unbeaten 49 runs in 27 balls.

For South Africa, Lungi Ngidi took three wickets and Kagiso Rabada took two wickets. While Wiaan Mulder got one success.

Now the Kiwi team will clash with India for the title in the final to be held in Dubai on Sunday. This will be the first time in this tournament since the year 2000 that both the teams will face each other for this title. India will be desperate to take revenge for the defeat it suffered 25 years ago, when the team led by Sourav Ganguly had to face defeat from Stephen Fleming’s team.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar