South Africa vs New Zealand Semifinal, ICC T20 World Cup 2026: Finn Allen put up a show with the bat during the first semifinal of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 between South Africa and New Zealand at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday, March 4. Allen smashed an incredible century as New Zealand made it to the final with a dominating 9-wicket victory over the Proteas.
Allen scored his century in just 33 balls on the back of 10 fours and eight sixes as New Zealand chased down the 170-run target in just 12.5 overs. Allen's outstanding effort helped him take his tally of maximums to 20 in the T20 World Cup 2026, and he became the first batter in the world to hit at least 20 sixes in one edition of the men’s shortest format mega-event.
The previous record of hitting the most sixes in one edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was held by West Indies batter Shimron Hetmyer. Hetmyer hammered 19 sixes in seven matches of the 2026 T20 World Cup for the West Indies.
Most sixes in one edition of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
20 - Finn Allen (2026)
19 - Shimron Hetmyer (2026)
18 - Sahibzada Farhan (2026)
17 - Nicholas Pooran (2024)
16 - Chris Gayle (2012)
16 - Rahmanullah Gurbaz (2024)
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Allen now has the joint-highest boundary count in a T20 WC innings, alongside as many for Brendon McCullum (11 fours, 7 sixes) vs Bangladesh in Pallekele in 2012. His effort of eight sixes by Allen is the most for NZ in a T20 WC innings, and the most for anyone in a T20 WC knockout.
Most sixes in a T20 World Cup match
Chris Gayle (WI): 11 sixes vs England in Mumbai (2016)
Chris Gayle (WI): 10 sixes vs South Africa in Johannesburg (2007)
Aaron Jones (USA): 10 sixes vs Canada in Dallas (2024)
Finn Allen (NZ): 8 sixes vs South Africa in Kolkata (2026)
Rilee Rossouw (SA): 8 sixes vs Bangladesh in Sydney (2022)
"We wanted to start well and put them on the back foot early. Easy for me when Timmy is going like that. I can just watch and get him on strike. He batted on a flyer. Huge game for us," Allen said.
On adapting to conditions, Allen underlined the importance of preparation. "You adapt to the wicket. Training is really important to get a feel of the surface. We knew it would be black soil, we had that intel. Shows how important that series was before the World Cup."