India defeated Australia in the first semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 tournament on March 4 in Dubai. With this win, India entered their third straight Champions Trophy final after 2013 and 2017.
After winning the toss, Australia posted 264 runs with Steve Smith making 73 and Alex Carey scoring 61 runs. Mohammad Shami was the star bowler for India with three wickets. In response, Virat Kohli shepherded the chase with 84 runs while Shreyas Iyer made 45 and KL Rahul finished the game with 42* as India won by 4 wickets.
After the game, fielding coach T Dilip gave an encouraging speech in the dressing room ahead of announcing the candidates for the ‘Best Fielder’ medal, a tradition that started in the ICC World Cup 2023.
T Dilip nominated four players for the medal: Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, and Virat Kohli. Former head coach Ravi Shastri was asked to present the award and received a warm reception in the Indian dressing room.
"It's a pressure game. You are by far the best team in the tournament so far. Individual brilliance will only take you to a certain level but it is the collective team effort that will take you across the finishing line when champions play. Today two champions were playing, a pressure game, character show, team effort. Flashes of brilliance in the field always make a difference. Normally, it's the turning point," Shastri said in a video posted by the BCCI.
A humorous moment occurred when Shastri called out "Dilip!" while searching for him, even though Dilip was standing right beside him with the medal.
"And the heavyweight medal, it's heavy. It goes to Shreyas Iyer," Shastri announced as he presented the medal.
Iyer has been consistent throughout the campaign in both hitting and fielding. He caught Ben Dwarshuis and executed a key run-out of Alex Carey, allowing Australia to score only 264 runs.
The dismissal came in the 48th over, when Iyer sprinted from deep backward square leg, retrieved the ball cleanly, and smashed the stumps at the wicketkeeper's end to remove Carey. Carey's retirement after hitting 61 runs off 57 balls was noteworthy since his sustained presence could have pushed the aim to 270-280 runs.
Here is the video:
