IND vs NZ T20 World Cup 2026 Final: India defeated New Zealand by 96 runs in the T20 World Cup 2026 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. They have lifted their third trophy.
The Men in Blue had put up a brilliant batting display and completed dominated the Kiwis as they had beaten them by 96 runs during the final and have successfully defended their T20 World Cup title by posting a mammoth target on Sunday. On the back of Sanju Samson's match-winning knock of 89 runs and brilliant fifties by Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan as India's top-order had smashed huge sixes and took the Kiwis bowlers to the cleaners in the summit clash and posted a mammoth target of 255 runs.
This was the highest-ever total posted in a T20 World Cup summit clash, on the back of a brilliant performance by the reigning champion on the world stage of the mega event.
The Kiwis succummbed to the scoreboard pressure as they continuously lost their wicket to the Indian bowlers and lost three quick wickets.
Finn Allen, who was New Zealand's stand-out performer and the star all-rounder Glenn Phillips fell cheaply and after their dismissals the Black Caps' efforts of putting up a fight went in vain.
Axar Patel (3/27) and Jasprit Bumrah (4/15) rattled New Zealand's batting attack and after the dismissal of Tim Seifert, who had scored a gritty knock of 52 runs off 26 balls, the match just became a formality.
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While batting first, Samson and Abhishek went all guns-blazing and took the Kiwi bowlers to the cleaners with their aggressive hitting.
They smashed fours consistently and stitched a match-winning partnership of 98 runs in 7.1 overs and had set the tone for a mammoth target.
They didn't care about the New Zealand bowlers at all and scored 200 runs within 15 overs.
But the Mitchell Santner-led side did put up a fight by taking the wicket of Samson, Kishan and captain Suryakumar Yadav within just six balls. Fast bowler James Neesham took the three wickets during the 16th over.
Hardik Pandya scored just 18 runs but Shivam Dube's gritty knock of 26 runs did give a late surge by scoring just 24 runs in the last over of Neesham.
The Men in Blue had scored 52 runs in the last five overs on the back of Dube's quickfire knock.
Brief Scores:
India: 255 for 5 in 20 overs. (Sanju Samson 89, Ishan Kishan 54, Abhishek Sharma 52; James Neesham 3/46).
New Zealand: 159 all out in 19 overs. (Tim Seifert 52, J Bumrah 4/15, Axar Patel 3/23).