ICC Champions Trophy: A flashback of the tournament

ICC Champions Trophy 2002

India and Sri Lanka shared the trophy after the finals were rained out

The third edition of the tournament, which was hosted by Sri Lanka, saw ICC changing the format from knock-out to a round robin one. Four groups of three teams each were formed, and the winner of each would go on to play the semifinal.

Usual suspects, Australia, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka came out on top in their respective groups, winning both their matches. Most notable of all the group stage matches was the one between India and England. Both the teams, having won their previous encounter against Bangladesh came into the match knowing that a win would cement their place in the semifinal.

The Three Lions batted first and posted a respectable total of 269, courtesy Ian Blackwell’s 82. However, Indian openers, Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly had other ideas in mind as they took the English bowlers to cleaners, scoring a century each and ensuring India bomb through to the semifinal, winning the match by eight wickets.

South Africa were once again India’s opponents in the semifinal, and like in the previous edition, they bottled it up yet again. Herschelle Gibbs and Kallis were making light work of India’s 261 and added 178 runs for the second wicket before the former retired hurt. The Proteas needed just 70 more runs, with Kallis batting on 63 and eight wickets in hand.

However, what followed was a complete capitulation as the Men in Blue applied immense pressure and made South Africa crumble. Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh wreaked havoc as India went on to win the match by 10 runs.

Sri Lanka, in the other semifinal, swept aside Australia by seven wickets to set up a mouth-watering final with India. However, rain played spoilsport as two consecutive days of the final were washed out. In both of these matches, Sri Lanka batted first and planted scores of 244 and 222 respectively, which might have been easy targets for a swell Indian batting line-up.

The rain didn’t subside and the Asian giants ended up sharing the trophy.

Leading run-scorer: Virender Sehwag (271 runs)

Leading wicket-taker: Muttiah Muralitharan (10 wickets)