Champions Trophy Flashback: How New Zealand Broke India Hearts in 2000 Final

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Champions Trophy flashback: A hobbling Chris Cairns battled knee injury to power New Zealand to an stunning victory and in the process broke Indian hearts in the ICC KnockOut Trophy 2000 final at the Gymkhana Club Ground in Nairobi, Kenya on 15 October 2000.

Reduced to 132/5 in the run chase of 265 against, Cairns smashed an unbeaten 102 off 113 balls to take New Zealand past the target with 2 balls and 4 wickets to spare, handing the Kiwis their first-ever ICC title. This is the first and only India vs New Zealand meeting in the Champions Trophy till 2017.

Walking in to bat at number five with the scorecard reading 109/4 in 18.5 overs following Roger Twose's dismissal, Cairns first shared a 23-run stand with Craig McMillan (15 off 14 balls) before putting on a match-winning 122-run partnership with Chirs Harris (46 off 72 balls) to take New Zealand home.

Nathan Astle (37 off 48 balls) and Twose (31 off 35 balls) also made useful contributions until they were bamboozled by leg spinner Anil Kumble (2/55 in 9 overs), who claimed two wickets for India.

Kumble's Karnataka state teammate Venkatesh Prasad was the pick of the bowlers for India with excellent figures of 3 for 27 in 7 overs, but that spell alone wasn't enough as Harris and Cairns found runs from the other end. Sachin Tendulkar, a capable bowler, also chipped in with a wicket for India.

Earlier, put into bat, the legendary pair of Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly got India off to a perfect start as the pair shared a 141-run stand for the opening wicket. However, a couple of run outs dented India's run-flow as Tendulkar (69 off 83 balls) and Rahul Dravid (22 off 35 balls) fell short of the crease.

Ganguly, who was involved in the two run outs, later reached his century. But Astle ended the India skipper for 117 off 130 balls. From there, the Indian middle order that included Yuvraj Singh, Vinod Kambli and Robin Singh failed to add to the excellent start.

All-rounder Ajit Agarkar and wicketkeeper-batter Vijay Dahiya remained unbeaten to take India to 264/6 in the allotted 50 overs with knocks of 15 and 1 respectively as Scott Styris finished the innings as New Zealand's best bowler with figures of 2 for 53 in 10 overs.