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The Champions Trophy 2025 campaign was in most part a happening tour for New Zealand except for the fact that they could win the title this time around. The only team who were able to outperform them twice was India who ultimately clinched the title defeating them by 4 wickets in the all-important final of the tournament. After the defeat, New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner had some interesting thoughts of his own looking back at the reasons behind his team’s failure to surpass the Indian challenge in the final.
Mitchell Santner takes a jibe at Dubai conditions
Santner acknowledged that Rohit Sharma‘s brilliant knock was the defining factor in the Champions Trophy final, ultimately proving to be the difference between the two teams. Reflecting on the narrow four-wicket defeat, Santner described it as a “bittersweet end” to their campaign. Rohit’s composed 76 off 83 balls played a pivotal role as India successfully chased down 252 in a thrilling finish.
“I think the way Rohit Sharma played kind of took it away from us, I think, obviously, India here understood the conditions in Dubai perfectly and played some good cricket. Yeah I guess it’s kind of bittersweet at the end,” New Zealand skipper said in the post-match press conference.
Additionally, the Black Caps skipper also talked about the challenges posed by the Dubai International Cricket Stadium pitch and conditions, which were a stark contrast to those in Lahore, the venue of their semifinal victory over South Africa.
“I guess we just keep coming up against India, which is always a challenge. We knew the conditions were going to be slightly different again from the semifinal, but we were ready for that. I thought we still put in a pretty good performance, and we took India deep. But I guess there’s always a few moments in every game, let alone every final, where you can potentially look back at,” the left-arm spinner remarked.
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Matt Henry a major miss for the Black Caps
Santner also reflected on the absence of star pacer Matt Henry, who had been in exceptional form throughout the tournament. He stated that Henry’s injury and subsequent absence from the final was a significant factor in his team’s inability to contain the Indian batters during the run chase.
“He’s an outstanding bowler. We’ve seen he seems to be able to nip it on wickets that don’t look like they should nip so I guess we missed that today. I feel for Matty – he’s a massive team man and he looked pretty distraught. You know, we just kind of said, like, let’s do it for him. He tried everything he could to be ready for this game and unfortunately for us he wasn’t quite there,” Santner concluded.
With 10 wickets in 4 matches, Henry was the leading wicket-taker of the tournament, emerging as a major bone of contention for rival batting units.
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