India entered the final of Champions Trophy 2025 after registering a comfortable four-wicket victory against Australia in the first semi-final match on Tuesday in Dubai. Opting to bat first, Australia got bundled out for 264 after skipper Steve Smith scored 73. Later, India lost two two wickets early but Virat Kohli's brilliant knock of 84 and KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya's strong partnership took India home with 11 balls to spare. Rahul, who scored 42* off 34 balls, finished the game in style with a massive six off Glenn Maxwell.
The moment after hitting the winning six, Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja hugged each other to celebrate India's victory. As the players went on to shake hands with the opposite team, a fan breached the ground security and came running onto the pitch.
He then came and immediately hugged Rahul to congratulate him. To everyone's surprise, Rahul made the fan's day by spreading his arms and happily acknowledging the hug. Moments later, the fan was taken away by the umpires.
This video went viral on social media as the fans were left utterly impressed by the gesture of the Indian wicketkeeper-batter.
After the match, Rahul opened up on his batting position in the Indian team in the 50-over format.
"Yeah, I do [enjoy batting at the top], I mean I won't lie. It's after opening the batting in Australia in Test matches and having to face that attack in Australia and you know how red-ball [cricket] is much harder. I opened the batting there and then to come here and bat low seems a bit different, but this is how I've played white-ball cricket in the last four-five years," Rahul told Star Sports.
"So, I'm quite used to going up and down the order so I'm just happy getting a chance to play in the middle and whatever role is given, I think it's really helped me understand my game a lot more and I've had to work on boundary hitting a lot more in the last year or so because the last ODI we played in Sri Lanka I batted at No. 6, so I knew that's where I'll be batting and [we] needed a left-hander in the top order," he added.
The final of Champions Trophy 2025 will be played between India and New Zealand on Sunday in Dubai.