ICC Champions Trophy: A flashback of the tournament

ICC Champions Trophy 2006

Australia won the Champions Trophy for the first time in 2006

The tournament, which was played after every two years then, was hosted by India for the first time. The number of teams was brought down to 10, with all the test playing nations taking part in the tourney.

Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe had to play a qualifying round, and the top two made it to the main draw. Naturally, the former two teams triumphed, with Lanka winning all their matches and WI defeating the lesser teams.

Following the preliminary round, two groups of four teams each were formed. Australia, West Indies, India and England were clubbed into one group, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa in the other.

India were expected to dominate the tournament being the home team, however, after a dominating performance in the first match against England, their charge fizzled out. However, the good thing about the tourney was that none of the top teams went home without a win to their name.

After a topsy-turvy group stage, which didn’t see a lot of runs being scored, West Indies, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand made it to the last four.

The two Trans-Tasmanian rivals met each other in the first semifinal, where Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds scored a half century each and helped Australia to a respectable total of 240 runs.

New Zealand, however, fell like a pack of cards to Glenn McGrath’s meticulous bowling and were reeling at 35 for 6 before Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram stitched a partnership worth 103 runs for the seventh wicket. Symonds then removed Oram and soon the Kiwis succumbed to a 34-runs defeat but not before Vettori slammed a half-century himself.

In the second semifinal at Jaipur, Riding on Herschelle Gibbs’s 77, South Africa amassed 258 runs. However, a certain Chris Gayle spoiled their party, scoring a century and making sure that West Indies make it to the final and defend their title.

A rain-affected final saw West Indies getting bowled out for 138 runs, with Nathan Bracken picking three wickets. Shane Watson, who also bagged a couple of wickets himself, raced to a half-century as the Kangaroos chased down the revised total of 116 in 28.1 overs and added the trophy which was missing from their cabinet for long.

Leading run-scorer: Chris Gayle (474 runs)

Leading wicket-taker: Jerome Taylor (13 wickets)