On Sunday, March 9, 2025, India beat New Zealand in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy final at Dubai International Stadium in UAE to become the first team to win the tournament three times — including the controversial 2002 Champions Trophy shared between India and Sri Lanka. It was the first and only time the trophy was shared between joint winners in ICC tournament history.
The 2002 ICC Champions Trophy final was played between India and Sri Lanka and took place at R. Premdasa Stadium in Colombo in September 2002. A total of twelve teams participated in the tournament with India and Sri Lanka — the host country — emerging as finalists after defeating South Africa and Australia respectively in the semifinals. The final was scheduled to take place on September 29, a Sunday, with September 30, Monday, as a reserve day.
The first attempt at staging the match was abandoned on Sunday, September 29, two overs into the second innings. Batting first, the Sanath Jayasuriya-led Sri Lankan side scored 244 runs for 5 wickets in 50 overs, with Captain Sanath Jayasuriya (74) and a young Kumar Sangakkara (54) leading the charge. Indian off-spinning legend Harbhajan Singh led the visitors' bowling attack with a stellar spell of 27 runs in 10 overs, picking up 3 wickets. But as the Sourav Ganguly-led Indian side gave chase with 14 runs for no wickets in 2 overs, the match had to be abandoned because of heavy rain.
This was before tiebreakers like the Super Over and the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (or DLS) method became the norm in rain-affected ICC finals, and a rematch was scheduled on the reserve day on Monday, September 30. Again, Sri Lanka batted first and posted 222/7 in 50 overs, led by Mahela Jayawardene's 77-run knock. Zaheer Khan — widely considered one of the best fast bowlers Indian cricket as ever produced — struck early with the first ball of the match, a little away-swing that saw home-team captain Sanath Jayasuriya playing onto his stumps.
India's chase began with 38 runs for 1 wicket in 8.4 overs. Virender Sehwag was 25 not out and Sachin Tendulkar, who survived a close leg-before-wicket (lbw) appeal by Chaminda Vaas on the very first ball and remained unbeaten on 7. Sri Lanka's lone wicket was that of Dinesh Mongia, top-edging an attempted pull off Vaas high to midwicket in the third over.
At this point, once again, the match had to be suspended due to rain. As the day progressed, the rain eased off but never stopped and — with India needing to bat a further 16 overs for a result to be valid as per ICC rules at the time — the umpires had little option but to abandon the match with no reserve day left.
As a result of poor scheduling and contingency planning on part of the ICC, as well as the absence of tie-breaking methods like the Super Over or the DLS method in ICC finals at the time, and rules which required a minimum of 25 overs bowled to the side batting second for an official ODI result, the trophy was shared between India and Sri Lanka, even after 110 overs played on two consecutive days. It was the first — and only) — instance of joint winners in an ICC tournament and prompted discussions about scheduling and contingency planning for future events.
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