Jasprit Bumrah, centre, celebrates New Zealand’s wicket taker Rashin Ravindra with teammates during the T20 Cricket World Cup final between India and New Zealand in Ahmedabad, India, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo)
TimesofIndia.com in Ahmedabad: Since that emotional night on November 19, 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, India have won the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy, but the feeling of incompleteness persists due to the heartbreak of the 50-over World Cup final.
In the run-up to the 2026 title showdown at the same stadium, the past is fresh in the memory. Although Suryakumar Yadav has not lost a series since taking over in 2024, the World Cup hype has been taken with a grain of salt. In the final, the team that carries the burden of a billion hopes in 2026 and a billion heartbreaks in 2023 delivered. And they delivered it with self-confidence!
Extra trains and pujas: How India is preparing for the T20 World Cup final
An absolutely dominant India outplayed New Zealand to seal an emphatic victory and become the only T20I team in history to lift back-to-back World Cup titles, also becoming the first team to win the trophy on home soil.
The long-awaited title clash turned out to be a non-contest as Suryakumar Yadav and Co. clinically owned the night, occasion and match to add another ICC trophy to their cabinet. It was coach Gautam Gambhir’s second title in as many matches, completing an entertaining and dominating two-year run ahead of the big night in Ahmedabad.Chasing a massive 256 runs, New Zealand could never get ahead.
Maybe it was the noise. It may have been the Indian bowling but bar Tim Seifert (52) and skipper Mitchell Santner (43), none of the other batsmen worked for the Blackcaps. Santner wanted to replicate Pat Cummins & Co.’s performance. Three years ago, but in the end the show was uninteresting.For India, Jasprit Bumrah took 4/15 and was on the cusp of scoring a hat-trick at one stage. Axar Patel took three. Hardik Pandya, Varun Chakaravarthy and Abhishek Sharma picked up one each.
Only Arshdeep Singh, who would hit the headlines for his unnecessary clash with Darryl Mitchell, went wicketless.Sometimes a single shot gets a player back on form, but for India, Lockie Ferguson’s power-play finish opened the floodgates and set the tone for the rest of the innings. The edges flew in unintended directions but achieved the desired result. The New Zealand speedster tried to overcompensate by mistake in height and was treated with disdain.
Control was not his strongest suit in the fourth innings, which lasted 24 runs and also showed his first 50-run opening stand in a T20 World Cup final since the 2009 edition.India openers Sanju Samson (89 off 46 balls) and Abhishek Sharma (52 off 21 balls) put on 98 runs in just 43 balls after New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and chose to bowl at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The opening stand set the tone for India as they scored 255 for 5.Abhishek Sharma was not in complete control but rode his luck either making enough contact or finding the right position. There were a couple of chances for the players but “enough” remained for the power play. An indirect catch in the Powerplay proved a tactical error from the Black Caps as Sanju Samson and Abhishek celebrated with some very ordinary bowling to score 92/0, the highest Powerplay score in the history of the tournament.
Although the two had different control ratios, they easily found and cleared boundaries, giving the side an inauspicious start.The first two overs, when restrictions were in place, were the only time India seemed happy to prevent some deliveries as absolute carnage unfolded the moment Jacob Duffy was introduced into the attack. After a 12-0 lead at the end of the second half, the openers added 80 points in the next four overs.
Abhishek continued to bat with the same pace, the way he had craved in the matches leading up to the title clash, and reached the fastest half-century in the tournament in just 18 balls.
The warm hug from coach Gautam Gambhir during the drinks period showed how the dressing room was always behind him and celebrating the brilliant knock under pressure.While Abhishek departed soon after scoring his half-century, Samson carried on with business as usual, looking in fine form and completing his third successive half-century in the tournament.
Shot selection, clean deliveries and an effortless ability to time the ball exquisitely kept the New Zealand bowlers flying away from cover. Both Samson and the next batsman, Ishan Kishan (54 off 25 balls), did not let the momentum wane as they together added 105 runs off just 48 balls to put the New Zealanders on the mat.From the moment he walked out to bat, Ishaan looked like a man possessed and found his spots instantly, just as he has been doing for the past two months.
There was muscle, there was agility, and there was plenty of runs as India produced another fearsome display with the bat. This was something to be expected from this dangerous unit before the start of the tournament, and something that finally happened when it mattered most, in the Super 8s, in the semi-finals and now the final.Samson’s 46-ball 89 and Kishan’s 25-ball 54 were exactly the contributions India needed from their top order in this batting paradise, which was supported by tepid bowling.
James Neesham briefly tapped the brakes with a narrow one-third lead but Shivam Dubey (26 not out off 8 balls) was ready to play another influential hand to push the total beyond 250 and beyond the reach of the New Zealanders.The 256-run chase required the New Zealanders not just to fly but to soar. They had the firepower in their ranks, but the big game, the all-round Indian bowling attack and more than 85,000 fans behind the defending champions meant the match would only be a repeat of the dominance seen in the Eden Gardens semi-final.
The powerplay holds the key in these huge run chases and India prevailed in the first six overs to break the opposition’s back before they could gain momentum in the run chase.It could have been much worse if Shivam Dubey had not interrupted Arshdeep Singh’s celebration by dropping one of the bowlers, but the combined brilliance of left-arm spinners Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel reduced the opponents to just 52/3.Summary scores:India: 255 for 5 in 20 overs. (Sanju Samson 89, Ishan Kishan 54, Abhishek Sharma 52; James Neesham 3/46).New Zealand: 159 total in 19 overs. (Tim Seifert 52, J Bumrah 4/15, Axar Patel 3/23).