India win Champions Trophy

Apologies for the lack of posts over the Champions Trophy tournament. Unfortunately I've been incredibly busy over the past month. Nonetheless I'm not now, so expect a lot more posts in the next couple of months.

India have won the final of the Champions Trophy against England in a match thrown into disarray because of rain. With the ICC stupidly not scheduling a reserve day, the final was forced into a 20-over affair, albeit with ODI rules. India batted first and made 129/7 off their 20 overs with Virat Kohli top scoring with 43, while in-form Shikhar Dhawan made 31. England didn't begin their chase in the best of fashion collapsing to 46/4. Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara contributed with 33 and 30 respectively, however Ishant Sharma snuffed their efforts in two balls in a remarkable 18th over. Sharma ended up 2/36 off 4, after being wicketless for 27 runs off his first three overs. Jadeja picked up the wicket of Buttler in the next over, and with Bresnan being run out, England had lost four wickets in eight deliveries for three runs. James Tredwell needed a six off the last over to win the match, however a dot ball resulted off the bowling of Ashwin.

India have thoroughly deserved this win as they have been the best side of the tournament by far - going undefeated in 5 matches. They have therefore consolidated their lead at the top of the ICC ODI Rankings and created a buffer of eight points to second place England.

This was supposed to be the last edition of the Champions Trophy, however according to a recent article on Cricinfo, there are murmurings that that the tournament may be revived. I agree that the tournament was a relative success with the short and sharp format successful in making all games meaningful. However I don't really see the point of having both an eight team Champions Trophy and a 10 team World Cup. If the Champions Trophy is going to be kept, then you would think then the commonsensical thing to do would be to increase the number of places in the World Cup. Unfortunately we are dealing with the ICC, so this has next to no chance of happening.