When New Zealand and India met in an ICC final for the first time
Himanshu Agrawal07-Mar-2025It is something of a cliché now that New Zealand are typically always underrated but consistently manage to deliver big with low-profile players. And one of the first instances that earned them that reputation was when their men’s team won the ICC KnockOut, later rebranded as the Champions Trophy, in Nairobi 25 years ago.In that tournament New Zealand had their share of players who had been around for a bit. Chris Cairns had made his international debut in 1989, and their captain, Stephen Fleming, had been around for about six years. But true to form since, there were no superstars in the side.In the final, New Zealand beat an India team boasting legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, and that also had in their ranks Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, both about four years into what would become storied careers. In the semi-final, New Zealand beat Pakistan, who had greats like Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq in their side.Related
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That was New Zealand’s first semi-final win in a global tournament; they had lost the four ODI World Cup semi-finals they had made it to till then – the last of them, coincidentally, against Pakistan at Old Trafford. Playing a final was uncharted territory.”I think if we’re completely honest with ourselves, we were never really rated that highly,” Shayne O’Connor, who took 5 for 46 in that semi-final against Pakistan, said. “But we knew within our team that we were going well, and things were kind of building. We were just starting to get a bit of belief in ourselves. The shorter the game, the more chance a lesser team has of knocking over some big teams. And it just so happened that we knocked over a couple of big teams to get through.”Before facing Pakistan, New Zealand went up against Zimbabwe in the quarter-final. Zimbabwe had just beaten New Zealand 2-1 in an ODI series in Zimbabwe about a week before.”We certainly didn’t want to get knocked out early,” Roger Twose, New Zealand’s leading run-getter in the ICC KnockOut, said. “Over the years Zimbabwe have ebbed and flowed. But at that point in time they were a pretty good team, and [were] probably similar to us – no big names. So we certainly didn’t take them lightly. And, you know, you could easily lose to Zimbabwe.” But the quarter-final went New Zealand’s way – they won by 64 runs.India, whom New Zealand had beaten in the Super Six of the 1999 World Cup, awaited in the title match in Nairobi.Robin Singh made a brisk 13 before he was dismissed by Geoff Allott•Tom Shaw/Allsport/Getty Images”We had a number of young players that were just starting out international careers,” Craig McMillan, who got half-centuries against Zimbabwe and Pakistan in the tournament, said. “We had others that had been around a wee while. So it was a good blend, a good mixture, within that New Zealand team that was going to be pretty consistent for the next three or four years.”McMillan thought the pressure was actually on India in the final, but it didn’t seem that way from the way Tendulkar and Ganguly went about the things at the top of the innings after Fleming put India in. “If you were to ask me what’s the first thing you really remember about the tournament or about playing that final, it was Ganguly and Tendulkar absolutely teeing off against us,” O’Connor, who was taken off after his first two overs went for 16 runs, said. The second-most successful ODI batting pair at the time – and still No. 1, they crashed one boundary after another. New Zealand leaked 37 runs off the first four overs.”To be fair, we’d played Tendulkar and Ganguly previously. So we knew how they played and what they could do,” McMillan said. “Because generally, in one-day cricket, they were very destructive at the top. It happened to us before. We were on the back foot.”The partnership went beyond 100 in the 19th over, quick for that era, and New Zealand seemed lost. But they had a taste of luck when Tendulkar was run-out for 69 after a mix-up with Ganguly, and the opening stand ended at 141 in the 27th over. “That was perhaps exactly the thing we were waiting for,” O’Connor said.But Ganguly went on to get his second successive century – after one against South Africa in the semi-final. It would take something special from New Zealand to stop India’s flow, and they got it when Dravid too was run-out.India slid after that, just 62 runs coming off the final 11 overs, and finished on 264. “They should have got a lot more – [maybe] closer to 300,” McMillan said. “We were actually quite buoyant [at the halfway stage] because we fielded well with those two run-outs. So I felt that in the changing room, there was a feeling of resolve and determination, and a feeling that, yep, this game was up to be won.”New Zealand had successfully chased totals higher than 250 only three times before, but the latest of those had come against Pakistan in the match before.Two in two: Sourav Ganguly followed his semi-final hundred against South Africa with 117 in the final•AFP”I would be lying if I said that we hadn’t thought about or talked about winning the tournament at all,” O’Connor said. “But the only time I can remember talking about what would happen if we won the tournament was in the change room after we had beaten Pakistan, and it never really came up outside of that.”But New Zealand’s optimism was quickly checked. Venkatesh Prasad dismissed Craig Spearman and Fleming to reduce them to 37 for 2. In walked Twose, on the back of match-winning eighties against Zimbabwe and Pakistan.”We were just trying to absorb a little bit of pressure, and trying to play relatively low-risk cricket,” Twose said of his rebuilding stand with Nathan Astle. “We had some depth in our batting. So we steadied the ship, if you like, for that period of time.”Twose hit four boundaries off his first 17 balls. Astle, at the other end, was happy keeping it ticking over. But Kumble had him caught off the last ball of the 15th over. New Zealand were still 183 runs away.The next man in was managing a knee injury, which made him miss the semi-final. He was supposed to bowl only five overs in the final, as he wrote on this site about five years later, but ended up bowling all ten. After all, there was a trophy to play for. Despite his injury, Cairns played the definitive hand in the game.He too started aggressively, with four early boundaries, but when New Zealand were about 150 away, Kumble had Twose stumped for 31 off 35 balls and the pendulum swung once more. Twose still feels the frustration of the dismissal.”As a left-hander, I think [Kumble] was slightly easier to play,” Twose said. “He was able to turn his legspinner over time, but back then he was actually bowling quite fast. It was a just a good-length ball on or just outside off.”I’m pushing forward, trying to maybe nudge it into the off side for a single. And it either carries on with the angle or goes slightly away from me. It doesn’t take much to beat the outside edge, and unfortunately, I think it’s just a matter of millimetres.”Shayne O’Connor went wicketless in the final but he was Player of the Match for his five in the semi-final against Pakistan•Tom Shaw/Allsport/Getty ImagesNew batter McMillan joined Cairns and swept Kumble for back-to-back boundaries in the 21st over. “I always felt that the extra pace he gave you, I could use,” McMillan said. “And sweeping was one of my favourite shots. [But] if you missed it, you’re out lbw. So there was some danger in playing the sweep against him because he bowled so quick and flat. But I just felt that if I could get the ball fine enough, then I could actually use his pace, and it would beat the fielder. So on that small ground, I thought that was a good option too.”Ganguly had introduced Tendulkar into the attack in the 20th over, just after Kumble got Twose. That paid off when McMillan played what he described as an average shot in Tendulkar’s third over, slashing one straight to Ganguly at point. At 132 for 5, New Zealand were halfway to India’s total, but India were halfway through New Zealand too.Chris Harris, another of New Zealand’s allrounders, walked in at No. 7. India were operating with Kumble and Tendulkar for the sixth over in a row, and sensing the slow pitch was supporting spin, Ganguly brought Yuvraj Singh on. Bogged down by spin, Cairns and Harris went at about three runs an over for a nine-over stretch. By the time 15 overs were left to play, the required run rate had gone up to nearly seven runs per.O’Connor, though, reflected on feeling confident at that point. “When our backs were against the wall, we always knew on our day we could beat anyone,” he said. “Because you look at that batting line-up, and [there’s] Astle, Fleming, Twose, Cairns, McMillan, Harris, and even [Adam] Parore – it’s a pretty useful one. So if they were to fire, we were very capable of chasing or setting big totals.”Cairns was set, and past 50, and he had put on 63 with Harris. But the pressure was on. New Zealand needed 70 from the last ten overs.”The key was if we could bat the 50 overs, we were going to win,” McMillan said. “If we got bowled out, that was going to be the difference. I was confident we were going to win because of where we were.”India’s persistence with spin finally ended after 25 overs on the trot, when Ganguly brought Zaheer Khan back for the 44th over. Zaheer responded by conceding only four runs. New Zealand needed to score at close to nine an over in the last five. Only once before had they scored at a higher rate at that stage of an ODI, and that was against Pakistan in the World Cup eight years before.Grin when you’re winning: New Zealand after the final•Tom Shaw/AllsportThe 46th over. Zaheer to Harris, who had been accumulating patiently until then. On 33 off 59 deliveries at the start of the over, he crashed the first and final balls for four.New Zealand were in it. It was going deep. India’s nerve was being tested.India fans far outnumbered their New Zealand counterparts in Nairobi. But each time the ball went to the boundary, even that minority crowd made its presence felt, and the rare New Zealand flag on the ground stood out.With another 30 runs to get from 20 balls, Cairns launched Kumble for a massive six. The cameraman lost it in its flight as it went, and it had to retrieved by a local from a car park nearby. Now New Zealand needed 24 from 19. The telecast showed a supporter on the verge of tears, clenching his fist. Cairns punched gloves with Harris so hard that the latter’s fingers were nearly taken.Next ball, the paddle sweep got Cairns four. Ganguly looked clueless. Cairns could smell the trophy.”An informed, determined Chris Cairns is a pretty hard concept to break,” O’Connor said. “Thankfully, he was the one who’d come off on the day.”Second ball of the penultimate over, Cairns brought up his third ODI hundred. Harris was out immediately after. New Zealand still needed another 11 runs with nine balls left. They got four leg-byes at a crucial stage, and Fleming, sitting with his feet up until then, rose up, pumped.New Zealand needed just three from the final over. Victory was theirs when Ajit Agarkar bowled a high full toss fourth ball, and it was Cairns who, fittingly, swung to deep square leg.The ICC KnockOut was New Zealand’s – their first global trophy.
It took a while to sink in for Twose. “It was quite surreal. We worked out we’d won it when that final run had been scored, but you’re just in full elation. Emotions are running high. And, inevitably, it takes a little while to really absorb what you’ve achieved.”McMillan credits the time-honoured dressing-room strategy of having everyone sit in one place all through the chase. “Once the [Cairns and Harris] partnership got to 50, and we started to get some momentum back, no one moved – not even to get a drink. The only people that actually moved were those that had to put some pads on. Finally, we had a good partnership that had developed, so no one wanted to break it by moving from their seats. It was great to have everyone at the same spot, and then down to celebrate a historic win for New Zealand.”For O’Connor, one image from the game remains indelible, 25 years later. “I’ll never forget Cairns hitting the winning runs and then charging off down the wicket with his hands in the air.”He also pointed out a hoodoo many believe is true. “This is easy to say in hindsight, but I think New Zealand is a bit of a bogey team for India. In lots of situations, we seem to tip India over for some reason or another. And that’s carried on, hasn’t it? New Zealand has always troubled India. I mean, at least in the big tournaments.”After the win, Twose quietly pocketed a souvenir. “I’ve got a nice orange stump from the final. I’m actually going to gift it to the New Zealand Cricket Museum. But I didn’t get the Indians to sign it. Maybe I didn’t have the courage to go to their dressing room and ask for some signatures!”O’Connor remembers the celebration not being “too over the top”. “I really enjoy celebrating massive achievements, and I was looking forward to a really good celebration,” he said. “[But] Nairobi is not exactly the sort of place you can go out on the town! So we had a bit of a shindig at the hotel, and it was a pretty quiet night. I think we might’ve been in bed by midnight or just after.”One person who was part of the festivities was a man few of the New Zealand players knew, as Twose recalled with a chuckle. “John Anderson, the chair of New Zealand cricket, came down to the change room afterwards. He was a very private and understated man. It was just lovely that he was comfortable enough – although he a little uncomfortable – to come down to the change room, sit with us, have a couple of drinks and celebrate what was a very special moment.”Following the ICC KnockOut win, New Zealand’s men’s team went 21 years without winning another ICC trophy, until they won the ICC World Test Championship in 2021, beating none other than India again in the final. The women, meanwhile, won the World Cup two months after this Champions Trophy win. Last year they lifted their first T20 World Cup. O’Connor thought New Zealand still continue to be regarded as underdogs each time they play a big tournament – though not quite to the same extent as before.”I do think there will be teams who perhaps give New Zealand a little more respect than they might have,” he said. “They probably take us a little more seriously, but my perception is, they still think they should beat us.”The sun went down in Nairobi, but it was still a couple of hours to sunrise the next day in New Zealand, where not many will have been aware their cricket team had lifted a global trophy. Soon after, New Zealand departed for South Africa to continue their tour of the continent. Their ICC KnockOut win was soon forgotten, as New Zealand and their cricketers moved on. So very New Zealand.