On March 8, 2026, India and New Zealand faced off in the T20 World Cup 2026 final at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium. Mitchell Santner, New Zealand's captain, won the toss in the summit battle and elected to bowl first.
India opened with Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson, who took a few overs to get a look in before focusing on the Kiwi bowlers. Lockie Ferguson scored 24 runs in his maiden powerplay over as Abhishek Sharma went hammer and tongs.
He hammered 52 in 21 balls, his second fifty of the competition, with six fours and three sixes. Sanju Samson performed a supporting role before taking control when Rachin Ravindra dismissed Abhishek. Following that, Samson and Ishan Kishan maximized power play and overs.
Kishan scored 54 in 25 balls, with four fours and four sixes, while Sanju Samson scored 89 in 46 balls, with five fours and eight sixes each. India struggled in the middle overs, with Jimmy Neesham taking three wickets in the sixteenth over of the innings. However, Shivam Dube scored 28* in 8 balls to propel India to 255/5 in 20 overs.
New Zealand hoped their openers Finn Allen and Tim Seifert would score big, but it took two overs for them to do so. However, Axar Patel had Allen caught at the boundary for nine runs. The Kiwi middle order collapsed as Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Axar Patel dismissed Rachin Ravindra (1), Glenn Phillips (5), and Mark Chapman (3), leaving New Zealand on 70/4.
Tim Seifert was bowled by Varun after scoring 52 in 26 balls with five sixes and two fours, when Darly Mitchell stepped out to bat and smashed some sixes. However, Axar Patel dismissed him for 17 runs. Captain Mitchell Santner hit 43 runs to just stretch out the Kiwi innings.
The innings was brought to a swift end as Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Neesham, Santner, and Matt Henry for cheaply. Abhishek Sharma also took a wicket to end the New Zealand innings at 159 runs in 19 overs. India won the final by 96 runs as Bumrah took 4/15 and Axar Patel took 3/27.
With this win, India became the first team to win the T20 World Cup three times, the first team to defend the title successfully, and the first team to win the T20 World Cup as hosts.
The Indian cricket fraternity was all proud of the Indian team’s one-sided win over New Zealand in the final and lauded the team on social media.
Here are the posts:
