Another final. Another not to be for the Black Caps. And this one wasn’t even close.
The final defeats keep adding up for New Zealand as hosts India cruised to a 96-run win in Ahmedabad to defend their T20 World Cup title.
Beating the host nation in a final was always going to be a tall order but the Black Caps did themselves no favours as India made the most of wayward bowling to amass the third-highest total at a Twenty20 World Cup match, reaching 255 for five, after being sent in by Mitchell Santner.
Their innings was set up brilliantly by openers Sanju Samson (89 from 46) and Abhishek Sharma (52 from 21), with the pair putting on 98 from the first seven overs as the New Zealand bowling attack just didn’t have an answer. Poor length and misdirected slower balls were consistently put away to the boundary.
After Sharma was eventually removed by a wide delivery from Rachin Ravindra, edging behind to Tim Seifert, Samson then added a century stand with Ishan Kishan (52 from 25 balls) which took the game away from the Black Caps.
New Zealand had very few answers with the ball, especially their pace attack, with Matt Henry (1-49), Jacob Duffy (0-42) and Lockie Ferguson (0-48) all punished. James Neesham took three in an over, which looked to stem the tide somewhat before returning for the final over and conceding 24 runs to ensure India passed the 250 mark for the second straight knockout game and third time in this World Cup.
The Black Caps were left chasing a score two runs more than their highest ever T20 total, which came against Scotland. But they were similarly stumped with the bat, being bowled out for 159 with an over to spare.
To have a chance, they needed semi-final hero Finn Allen to replicate his ton against South Africa but he departed in the third over for nine – after being dropped on zero.
Fellow opener Seifert at least gave the Black Caps some early hope with 52 from 26 balls but wickets kept falling around him, first Ravindra for one and then Glenn Phillips for five, which left New Zealand 47 for three.
When Seifert departed for a well-struck half century, New Zealand were 72 for five and the required run rate was already above 16. But with veterans Daryl Mitchell and Mitchell Santner at the crease, there was still home hope, albeit slim.
They put on 52 runs, but not at a quick enough pace before Mitchell was caught in the deep for 17. Jasprit Bumrah then struck twice in an over before removing Santner to finish with 4-15 in a man of the match performance, though to be fair the game was well in India’s hands before Bumrah stood at the end of his run-up for the first time.
“Proud of the boys to make it this far. Obviously we had some challenges throughout but at each stage we put up a good fight. Today we got outplayed by a great team in front of a great crowd,” Santner said.
“To see a big sea of blue, obviously India were home favourites. Playing a home World Cup comes with a lot of pressure. But yeah SKY [Suryakumar Yadav] and the boys should be very very proud. Different guys stood up at different stages. In the Super Eight and semi-finals we put up a good fight but tonight we were obviously outplayed.”
For the Black Caps it is a second final defeat at the T20 World Cup, after falling to Australia by eight wickets in 2021, and sixth loss in a white ball final.
They also lost back-to-back ODI finals in 2015 and 2019 and two Champions Trophy finals in 2009 and last year. Their only win coming at the defunct Knockout Trophy in 2000 when they beat India.