The tournament that was supposed to be the last
When the 2013 edition was scheduled, the ICC had already announced that it would be the final Champions Trophy. A World Test Championship was to take its place in 2017. That plan was abandoned in January 2014 and the competition survived, but the 2013 tournament was played under the assumption that it was a farewell.
Eight teams, two groups of four, three grounds in England and Wales, and eighteen days in June. The weather intervened repeatedly: one group match was abandoned, another was cut to 24 overs a side, and the final was reduced to twenty. The pitches were generally good and several totals passed 300, which had not been true of 2006 or 2009.
The groups
Group A was tight. England beat Australia by 48 runs in the opening match, Ian Bell making 91. New Zealand then beat Sri Lanka by one wicket at Cardiff, having been 90 for 8 chasing 139, with Nathan McCullum and Mitchell McClenaghan getting them home with two balls left. Australia's match against New Zealand was abandoned. Sri Lanka chased 294 against England at The Oval with Kumar Sangakkara making 134 not out, then beat Australia by 20 runs to go through with England. Australia lost their only two completed matches and went out.
Group B was won by India, who beat South Africa by 26, West Indies by eight wickets and Pakistan by eight wickets in a rain-shortened match at Edgbaston. Shikhar Dhawan made 114 against South Africa and 102 not out against West Indies. South Africa took the second place after a tied match with West Indies on Duckworth-Lewis at Cardiff. Pakistan lost all three.
England beat South Africa by seven wickets in the first semi-final at The Oval, bowling them out for 175 with James Tredwell taking 3 for 19. India beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets at Cardiff, restricting them to 181 for 8.
Twenty overs at Edgbaston
The final was scheduled for fifty overs and delayed repeatedly. Play eventually began with twenty overs a side. India batted first on a slow pitch and made 129 for 7, a total that looked short until England began their reply. Ravindra Jadeja hit 33 from 25 balls at the end of the innings, which proved to be the difference.
England were 110 for 4 with 16 balls left and needed 20. Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan had put on 64 and were both set. Ishant Sharma, who had been expensive, then had Morgan caught at deep midwicket and Bopara caught at long-on off successive deliveries. Jadeja bowled the nineteenth over for six runs and took a wicket. England finished on 124 for 8 and lost by 5 runs.
India had won all five of their matches. Dhawan's 363 runs were the most, Jadeja's 12 wickets the most, and MS Dhoni became the first captain to have won the World Twenty20, the World Cup and the Champions Trophy. England had now lost three global one-day finals at home.