England in Champions Trophy

England has always been unlucky in the ICC Champions Trophy. Every time they arrived hoping for the cricket trophy, but had to return home unceremoniously. They peak performance was in 2004 when they reached the final. However, they lost to West Indies.

1998 - Bangladesh
England reached quarter-finals of the cricket tournament in the inaugural Champions Trophy. However, despite making valiant 281, they were defeated by six by the team of Hansie Crojne. English captain Adam Hollioake scored 83 not out while Neil Fairbrother made 56 runs.

2000 - Kenya
South Africa thrashed England again in the Quarter-finals. They had defeated Bangladesh in the preliminary round by eight wickets. Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart performed brilliantly against Bangladesh, but the team capitulated in South Africa match.

2002 - Sri Lanka
This time, England was out from the pool stage itself. They did defeat Zimbabwe by 108 runs powered by the performance of Man-of-the-Match Michael Trescothick. However an eight-wicket loss against India put them out of the cricket tournament.

England, clubbed with India and Zimbabwe in the group, was not able to progress beyond the pool stage in the 2002 edition of the tournament. The enjoyment of the 108-run victory against Zimbabwe buoyed by a century from Man-of-the-Match Michael Trescothick was short lived after they crashed out of the tournament after suffering an eight-wicket loss against India. Virendra Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly slammed centuries in reply to 269 posted by Nasser Hussain and his boys.

2004 - England
England was defeated by the West Indies in the final. The Caribbean bowlers dismissed hosts England for 217. England fought and reduced West Indies to 147-8. However, Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw had other ideas. They made an unbeaten ninth-wicket stand of 71 to attain a two-wicket victory. England was stunned. In the semi-finals, England had defeated Australia by six wickets. Skipper Michael Vaughan (86), along with Marcus Trescothick (81) and Andrew Strauss (52) were instrumental in Australian defeat. In response to Australia's 259, England made 262.

2006 - India
Australia and India pushed England out of 2006 Champions Trophy. England was bundled out by India for 125. India reached home with four wickets remaining. Australia limited England to 169 and then defeated them by six wickets. They got a consolation win when they defeated 2004 winner West Indies by three wickets. Kevin Pietersen played a big role in this win.