The second edition of Champions Trophy was held in 2000. This event was also called the ICC Knockout Tournament like the first tournament held in 1998. It was held in Kenya from 3rd to 15th October.
Like the 1998 version, all the matches were played in knockout format. All the 9 Test playing countries along with two non-Test-playing nations Kenya and Bangladesh played in the competition.
This tournament has more significance to Indians as Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan made their debut into international cricket with this tournament.
Both Yuvraj and Zaheer Khan evolved into star players for India in the following years.
As there were 11 teams to fill the 8 slots in the main event three teams had to be eliminated before the main event began.
Pre-quarter-finals
The top 5 ranked teams in the 1999 world cup seedings qualified directly for the quarter-finals the first stage of the main event.
The remaining 6 teams had to play 3 playoff matches or pre-quarterfinals to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe qualified for the knockout stage automatically, while India, Sri Lanka, and England qualified from the Pre-Quarter-Finals by beating Kenya, West Indies and Bangladesh respectively.
Quater-finals
In the first quarter-final match, which took place on October 7th India played against the world cup champion at that time Australia.
Australia won the toss and elected to field first. India put up a score a 265 for the loss of 9 wickets in the 50 overs. Yuvraj Singh announced his arrival at the international stage in style by hitting 84 runs in 80 balls against the mighty Aussies.
Australia (245/10 in 46.4 overs) could not chase the total. Another debutant Zaheer Khan shined with the wall as he picked up two important wickets at a crucial stage.
Yuvraj was awarded Man of The Match prize. India progressed to Semis.
In the second quarter-final, Pakistan won against Sri Lanka. Pakistan reached the target of 195 runs with the loss of one wicket and in 43.2 overs.
Saeed Anwar recorded a century (105) in this match.
In the third quarter-final, New Zealand (265/7) beat Zimbabwe (201/10 in 42.2 overs).
In the last quarter, South Africa(184/2 in 39.1 overs) defeated England (182/10).
At the end of the quarter-finals, the four teams which advanced to semis were India, Pakistan, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Semi-finals
The first semi-finals took place between Pakistan and New Zealand. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat. New Zealand bowled Pakistan for 252 runs in 49.2 overs. New Zealand achieved the target in 49 overs. Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar (104) second century in the consecutive match went in-vain.
India faced South Africa in the second semi-final. India won the toss and chose to bat. It scored 295 runs for 6 wickets. Captain Sourav Ganguly starred with the bat where he made 141 runs.
South Africa who came to bat in the second innings was bundled for 200 runs in 41 overs. India won and proceeded to finals
Finals
The finals were played on 15th October. India was asked to bat after New Zealand won the toss. Indian captain Ganguly continued his brilliant run in the tournament as he scored another century (117) in a row.
However the middle and lower order batsmen could not capitalize on the flying start the openers gave.
India finished its innings with 264 runs at the end of 50 overs with the loss of 6 wickets.
New Zealand which came to bat second lost two wickets for just 37 runs and it looked as if India was on a path to an easy victory.
However all-rounder Chris Cairns played spoilsport for India with his unexpected century and led his team to a thrilling historic victory in 49.2 overs.
New Zealand won the 2000 Champions trophy. This is the only ICC tournament which New Zealand has won until now.
