ICC Champions Trophy: India's enviable record and other interesting numbers from competition's history

ICC Champions Trophy has its own importance in international cricket. Some people refer to it as a ‘mini world cup’. Australia and India are the only team to have won it twice. The Aussies won it in 2006 and 2009 while India won it in 2002 (shared with Sri Lanka) and 2013. On the other hand, South Africa and New Zealand have won the ICC Champions Trophy in 1998 and 2000 respectively. Moreover, it is the only ICC tournament that South Africa and New Zealand have won in their cricket history.

England have hosted it twice, in 2004 and 2013 and on both occasions they finished as the runner-up. They will now try to be third time lucky and win the eighth edition that will take place in England from 1 June. Moreover, they have the right combination to beat any team on any given day in their own conditions so they will start as favourites. It will be intriguing to see how other teams will play in the upcoming ICC event.

Let’s look at the history of ICC Champions Trophy in some interesting numbers.

Australia are the only team to win ICC Champions trophy in consecutive editions.

India have won most no. of matches and also have the best win percentage in ICC Champions Trophy.

India were the first team to score 300-plus score in Champions Trophy match. They scored 307 runs by losing eight wickets against Australia at Dhaka in 1998.

Netherlands were the first team to get bowled out under 100 runs in a Champions Trophy match. They were bundled out for 86 runs against Sri Lanka at Colombo (RPS) in 2002.

Three out of five top run-scorers in ICC Champions Trophy history are from Asia.

Nathan Astle holds the record of scoring most runs in an ICC Champions Trophy match.

Chris Gayle amassed 474 runs in ICC Champions Trophy 2006/07 from eight matches at an average of 79.00 which is the most by any player in a single edition of a Champions Trophy.

Shahid Afridi holds the record for the fastest fifty in the Champions Trophy.

Virender Sehwag scored a century in just 77 balls against England at Colombo (RPS) in 2002 which is the fastest by any player in ICC Champions Trophy history.

Sourav Ganguly has hit most number of sixes in ICC Champions Trophy.

Kiwi pacer Kyle Mills is the highest wicket-taker in the history of the tournament.

Jerome Taylor took 13 wickets in ICC Champions Trophy 2006/07 from seven matches which is a record.

Farveez Maharoof is the proud owner of following record

Kumar Sangakkara holds the record of effecting most dismissals in ICC Champions Trophy history.

Jos Buttler affected six dismissals in previous Champions Trophy at The Oval against South Africa which is the most by a wicket-keeper in an Champions Trophy match.

Mahela Jayawardene holds the record of taking most catches in history of the competition.

Nathan McCullum is the only fielder to take four catches in an Champions Trophy match.

Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting’s pair added 252* runs for the second wicket against England at Centurion in 2009 which is the most by a pair in a Champions Trophy match

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara had played 22 matches each in the Champions Trophy which is the most by any player

Ricky Ponting had won 12 out of his 16 matches as a captain of Australia in the Champions Trophy making him the most successful captain in the tournament’s history.

Chris Gayle had won five Man of the Match awards in ICC Champions Trophy history which is a record.