India Adds to Its Haul With Champions Trophy Title

BIRMINGHAM, England â€" India took the Champions Trophy on a day when it redefined the concept of home-field advantage.

India won the rain-shortened final by five runs Sunday in a contest in which England was technically the host, though it never felt like it.

The thousands of British Indians at Edgbaston stadium, in one of Birmingham’s leafier suburbs, made it feel more like a cricket ground in Mumbai or Bangalore with their support of the visiting team. The pitch, which offered consistent slow spin to the bowlers, seemed better suited for South Asia, not England.

Five runs is no great margin, but there is no doubt India deserved its victory. Its innings had a stop-start quality. With the match reduced to less than half of its scheduled length before it even started, India was disrupted by two further rain delays.

“It never allowed us to build up any sort of momentum,” said India captain MS Dhoni, as his team was confined to 129 runs from its 20 six-ball overs.

For once, India bowled better than it batted, and it kept its cool when it was put under pressure for the first time in a tournament that it had dominated.

“This result means a lot,” said the usually laid-back Dhoni, who showed some unusual emotion once his team secured the victory. “It was the kind of match which is hard to win â€" to beat England in a 130-run game is very difficult.”

In particular, India stayed calm, while England panicked after batting its way to a strong position.

“From there, you’d back us to win more often than we’d lose,” said England captain Alastair Cook, whose team got to within 20 runs of victory with wickets and time to spare.

India looked to be imploding when Eoin Morgan struck pace bowler Ishant Sharma for a huge six, and Sharma responded with two consecutive wild deliveries, costing a further run apiece. But Morgan and Ravi Bopara, his partner in a 64-run partnership, were dismissed with the next two deliveries, and two more wickets fell in the following over.

“When it is spinning as much as it was, it is very difficult for new batsmen coming in,” Cook said of his team’s collapse.

Dhoni, after victories in the 2007 World Twenty20 and the 2011 World Cup, has now led India to titles in all three global cup competitions. While he failed with the bat, Dhoni supported his bowlers with brilliant wicket-keeping and imaginative and aggressive field placings.

He was well supported by his key players. Shikhar Dhawan struck a rapid 31 to take his final tournament-leading total to 363. Spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin took two wickets while conceding only 15 runs from his four overs, and he also held three catches. Virat Kohli, the heir apparent as captain, scored 43, running between the wickets and fielding with an aggression that distinguishes modern Indian players from those of earlier generations.

But the Man of the Match trophy went to all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who struck 33 runs and took two wickets to emerge as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with a total of 12 in India’s five matches.

England’s best player also has Indian roots â€" Bopara, whose family came to England from Punjab, took three wickets and scored 30.

So, 50 years after it invented one-day limited overs cricket, England remains the only major test nation never to have won a global title in the format. Sunday marked its fifth loss in a final, following three World Cups and the Champions Trophy of 2004.

The tense conclusion was the least that the capacity crowd deserved after rain delays that lasted nearly six hours. The tournament organizers showed flexibility and a concern for paying spectators not always seen in big-time cricket when they extended playing time by 75 minutes to complete the match.

The Champions Trophy lacks the status of the other two global competitions, but the crisp simplicity of an eight-team, two group tournament that takes only 17 days â€" precisely the format of the first World Cup in 1975 â€" has a real appeal.

Intended for the scrapyard after this year’s tournament, it may yet survive. The ESPN Cricinfo Web site reported Sunday that the International Cricket Council would discuss a reprieve when it meets later this week. It has made worse decisions.

A change in Australia

Cricket Australia fired Coach Mickey Arthur just two weeks before the start of the Ashes series against England, according to media reports, The Associated Press reported Monday from Sydney.

Fairfax Media reported that the South African-born Arthur, who was under contract to coach Australia through the 2015 World Cup, had been informed of the decision over the weekend.

In a statement, Cricket Australia said it would hold a news conference in Bristol, England, later Monday at which its chief executive, James Sutherland, and its high-performance manager, Pat Howard, would “discuss the coaching structure of the Australian team.”

Arthur, 45, was appointed Australia’s first foreign-born coach in November, 2011, in the aftermath of its crushing defeat by England in the last Ashes series in Australia. He was then coaching the Western Australia State side and was chosen after a search to replace Tim Nielsen.

Arthur previously coached South Africa from 2005 to 2010, guiding it to test and one-day series victories in Australia in 2008.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 25, 2013, in The International Herald Tribune.