Virat Kohli century steers India to Champions Trophy win over Pakistan

Virat Kohli’s record-extending 51st one-day century secured a six-wicket win over Pakistan in Dubai that puts India on the verge of qualifying for the Champions Trophy semi-finals.

After Pakistan were bowled out for a disappointing 241 in 49.4 overs, Kohli took centre stage, ticking off 14,000 ODI runs en route to 100 not out off 111 balls – with a final cover drive sealing his century and India’s victory, which leaves their rivals on the brink of early elimination.

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Champions Trophy 2025: Australia’s second tier up against it in absence of bowling big three | Geoff Lemon

Their attack has a distinctly Sheffield Shield flavour to it but the main thing in the two-times winners’ favour is the relative weakness of their group

For a long time, a strange situation continued in Australian cricket. Through a one-day World Cup in 2023, through a T20 World Cup in 2024, through a Test summer that sat between them, and through the lead-ups and warm-ups before all of the above, the same three fast bowlers showed up almost all of the time. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Patrick Cummins, in aeternum.

Things don’t work that way. Fast bowling is a horrifically taxing art, and the mad operators who pursue it across any level of the game share a gruesome delight in cataloguing their lifetime’s injuries, discarding sneakers and peeling back socks and rolling up trouser legs to show you toes bent sideways or lurid half-moons of scars around ankles or knees. At the top level, fitness and availability are sporadic, and that’s before you come to the changes driven by each format requiring different skills. Australia’s big three have been men for all seasons, all styles, all conditions, in a remarkable show of consistency and adaptability.

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