New Delhi: The Indian cricket team advanced to yet another ICC final after defeating Australia in the semi-final of the Champions Trophy 2025 on Tuesday. Virat Kohli was instrumental in India’s challenging run-chase, scoring an impressive 84 runs off 98 balls, while Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul added valuable runs in the middle order. Given India’s historically unfavorable performance against Australia in ICC knockout matches, the joy in the dressing room reflected the players’ excitement at securing a place in the final, particularly for captain Rohit Sharma and veteran player Virat Kohli.
I LOVE THIS TEAM SO MUCH, SOO MUCH pic.twitter.com/XzajzJVBvc
— Pallavi Anand (@PallaviSAnand) March 4, 2025
A video has emerged on social media depicting the celebrations in the Indian dressing room following the team’s victory. The clip begins with Kohli humorously recounting Hardik Pandya’s straight sixes, eliciting a memorable response from Rohit. As the video progresses, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and Rohit Sharma can be seen joyfully jumping as their emotions ran high.
Team India redeemed themselves with their win over Australia, countering their defeat in the 2023 ODI World Cup final to the same team. However, the team’s attention is now directed towards achieving success in the upcoming final on Sunday.
India’s impressive performance led them to the Champions Trophy final, but some critics have claimed they gained an ‘unfair advantage’ by playing all their matches in Dubai. In response to these allegations during the post-match press conference, head coach Gautam Gambhir strongly dismissed the claims.
“I know, there’s a lot of debate about the undue advantage. But what is an undue advantage? First of all, this is as much of a neutral venue for us as it is for any other team. I don’t remember which tournament we played in this stadium last time,” Gambhir said in the post-match press meet.
“We haven’t practiced here even for a day. We practiced in the ICC Academy. The conditions there and here are 180 degrees different. Some people are just perpetual cribbers. So, I feel we didn’t have any undue advantage,” further said.
India is set to compete against the victor of the second semi-final match between South Africa and New Zealand in the championship game on Sunday.
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