Virat gritty ton ensures India win, knocks Pakistan out of Champions Trophy 

India registered a convincing win against arch-rivals Pakistan at the jam-packed stadium in Dubai to advance into the semi finals of the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025. With this victory, Pakistan who was the official hosts are out of the tournament. 

Questions were earlier raised on Virat Kohli over his form. However,  the star batter shut the critics with his gritty century against the opposition he loves to score runs.

Indian bowlers stifle Pakistan

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first. However, they could manage to score 241 runs with Indian bowlers performing brilliantly in the high pressure game. All the Indian bowlers chipped in with wickets. They didn’t allow Pakistani batters to settle in. They continued to strike at regular intervals to give India an advantage. 

Clinical batting

In response, India started their innings with a strong response led by captain Rohit Sharma who played a cameo with some sparkling shots before getting bowled by Shaheen Afridi. 

Subsequently, Virat Kohli was accompanied by Shubman Gill and the duo stitched together a crucial partnership of 71 runs. After Gill’s departure on 46, it was the turn of in-form Shreyas Iyer who made 56 runs. Kohli and Iyer together had an effective partnership of 114 runs which frustrated Pakistan bowlers and pushed them away from the game.

At the end, Virat hit the winning runs by hitting a boundary and with that he got to his century where he soaked the appaulse for his efforts which helped India beat Pakistan. 

Brief scores:

Pakistan: 241 all out in 49.4 overs (Saud Shakeel 62, Mohammed Rizwan 46, Khushdil Shah 38; Hardik Pandya 2/31, Kuldeep Yadav 3/40) vs India 244/4 in 42.3 overs (Virat Kohli 100 not out, Shubman Gill 46, Shreyas Iyer 56; Abrar Ahmed 1/28).