Mitchell Santner Reflects on 'Bittersweet' Loss to India in Champions Trophy Final
Mitchell Santner described New Zealand's loss to India in the Champions Trophy final as 'bittersweet'. Despite challenging India, Santner acknowledged missed opportunities. He praised his team's effort and highlighted Rohit Sharma's pivotal performance. Santner remained optimistic, emphasizing the value of reaching the final and the competitive spirit shown by his team throughout the tournament.
Following the loss in the final against India in the recently concluded Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai on Sunday, New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner expressed his thoughts on the defeat and termed the result "bittersweet".
A swift half-century from skipper Rohit Sharma, fine knocks by Shreyas Iyer and fine spells from spinners, in particular Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav, helped an all-round India seal their third ICC Champions Trophy title, beating New Zealand by four wickets in Dubai on Sunday.
Speaking at the match press conference, the left-arm spinner lauded his team for challenging India throughout the game but also acknowledged that on several occasions, they let the game slip away.
"It's bittersweet at the end. We came up against a good side in the final. We challenged India at times throughout this game, which was pleasing. There were a couple of small moments where we let it get away from us," Santner told media as quoted by ICC.
"I'm incredibly proud of this group, the way we've gone about it throughout this tournament. We've had a mix of experienced players and a few younger players in the squad. It's been an easy one to captain, different guys stepping up at different times throughout the tournament, which has been outstanding," he added.
Further, the 33-year-old player also had kind words for Men in Blue skipper Rohit Sharma, who was awarded the Player of the Match for his brilliant performance in the championship game. He played an exceptional knock of 76 runs from 83 balls, which was laced with seven boundaries and three maximums.
"We came up against a very good team today. We were in the game for most of it, we probably left 20 runs out there with the bat, and the way Rohit Sharma played took it away from us," Santner remarked.
Santner refused to be disheartened about another defeat in the final of a competition, pointing out: "If you make finals, you're coming up against another pretty good team who are also playing some good cricket. I was proud of the way we fought tonight. We pride ourselves on not giving up, and I don't think we did."
"You always want to win one of these, and I don't know how many more chances we'll get, but this is up there for us. We were playing some good cricket leading into this. We thought we had a real sniff today, but we got beaten by a good team," he concluded. (ANI)