Australia won the ICC Champions Trtophy 2009

The Kangaroo’s made history again! Defending Champion Australia beat New Zealand in the final to win the ICC Champions Trophy 2009. Australia won the ICC Champions Trtophy 2008 too. The Aussies bounced back with a bang to reach the No. 1 of the ICC ODI Rankings, with their outstanding performance in Champions Trophy 2009. Shane Watson got a brilliant century in the final.

Australia started the final as the favorite against the Kiwis, who missed their skipper Daniel Vettori because of an injury. New Zealand won the toss and selected to bat first. But Australian bowlers did not give them a chance to settle down.

New Zealand get just 200/9 in 50 overs. Guptill was the top scorer with 40, while Broom made 37. Franklin contributes 33. For Australia, Hauritz took 3 wickets. Brett Lee took 2 wickets.

Chasing a winning target of 201, Australia lost RickyPonting and Paine for just two runs on board. New Zealand began to smell victory, as Australia are 6/2 at one stage. However, Shane Watson and White changed the way of the game with a partnership of 128. White ended 62.

Australia reached 206/2 in 45.2 overs. Shane Watson hit his 4th ODI hundred and second successive century and remained unbeaten on 105. For New Zealand, Kyle Mills took 3 wickets. Australia became the only team to win ICC Champions Trophy twice.

Ricky Ponting won the "Golden Bat" award for scoring 288 runs in the tournament. South African bowler Wayne Parnell, who took 11 wickets in the tournament, got the "Golden Ball" award. For the first time, all members of winning team get a Champions Jacket each.
Man of the Match: Shane Watson Man of the Tournament: Ricky Ponting

Pakistan beat West Indies by 5 wickets

Fast bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Umar Gul shared 6 wickets as Pakistan beat West Indies by 5 wickets in their ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Group A match at the Wanderers on Wednesday.

West Indies, fielding a weakened lineup in the tournament, were dismissed for 133.

Pakistan stumbled in their reply before an unbeaten stand of 58 from Umar Akmal (41*) and Shahid Afridi (17*) leaded them home with over 19 overs to spare.

West Indies winning the toss and electing to bat first, the West Indies batsmen fell flat as 17-year-old Aamer and Gul reduced them to 47 runs for seven.

Aamer c&b Dale Richards for a single at the end of the 1st over and then added the wickets of Travis Dowlin for a duck and David Bernard for six to finish with three for 24 in 7 overs.

Gul produced a probing spell of three for 28 in eight overs as he claimed the wickets of Devon Smith (18), captain Floyd Reifer (7) and Chadwick Walton (0), the latter two with consecutive deliveries.

There was fighting from the West Indies lower-order, however, as Darren Sammy scored 25 and Nikita Miller made 51, his maiden ODI half-century.

The Wanderers pitch, unlike the flat surface up the road in Centurion, always offered the pacemen some support and West Indian opening bowler Gavin Tonge made use of what was available to make Pakistan sweat in their run-chase.

He bowled Imran Nazir for five with his first delivery and then had Kamran Akmal (5), Shoaib Malik (23) and Mohammad Yousuf (23) all caught behind by wicketkeeper Walton.

Misbah-ul-Haq (6) was dismissed by David Bernard as Pakistan slipped to 76 for five.
But West Indies' hopes of a spectacular victory dimmed as Umar Akmal played an smart innings, the 19-year-old stroking six fours in his unbeaten 41.

Dilshan, Mendis inspired Sri Lanka victory

Inspiring performances from Tillakaratne Dilshan (106) and Ajantha Mendis (3-30) helped Sri Lanka make a 55-run victory over hosts South Africa in the opening game of the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 at SuperSport Park on Tuesday.

Duckworth-Lewis method had to be applied as rain rashly ended South Africa’s run chase of 320. The Proteas were 206-7 after 37.4 overs when deep showers brought an end to the game with Albie Morkel (29) and Roelof van der Merwe (3) at the middle.

The hosts were shoring along at 90-1 until Ajantha Mendis show began. The heretical spinner removed Graeme Smith (58), Jacques Kallis (41) and JP Duminy (0) in the space of six overs, to go away the hosts in terrible straits.

While put into bat, Sri Lanka scored an impressive 319 for 8. Dilshan (106) continued his fine form and scored his third One-day International century and first against South Africa to help his team set a massive target of 320 runs for South Africa. The Sri Lankan innings was built around the 158-run stand among Dilshan and captain Kumara Sangakkara (54), and later a 116-run stand for the 4th wicket between Mahela Jayawardene (77) and birthday boy Thilan Samaraweera (37).

A recent change from the middle order, Dilshan struck 16 boundaries and one six in his 92-ball innings. He, finally, deceased on the first ball of the 29th over, caught at the boundary by Albie Morkel off the bowling of speedster Dale Steyn.

South Africa hadn't played any international cricket since the World Twenty20 in June and that was evident on Tuesday. Having set such high standards in the last 12 months, they were obviously below par and lacked necessity and sharpness in the field. Their bowling attack was led by Steyn (3-47), who didn't receive sufficient support, especially from Wayne Parnell, who conceded 79 runs from his 10 overs.