- Final: India, 255-5, beat NZ, 159, by 96 runs
- Samson’s 89 leads way before Bumrah takes four for 15
It may not have been the neutral’s thriller, but it was everything India wanted. They were the first men’s team to retain the T20 World Cup and the first side to win it on home soil, drowning New Zealand in a flood of runs before 100,000 ecstatic and almost entirely blue‑tunic’d fans.
New Zealand appeared dispirited while giving up 255 and miserable in trying to get it, and after taking a wander through the majority of their innings with defeat already an inevitability they were still 96 adrift when it was all over. They have now lost four World Cup finals of various hues since 2015, plus last year’s Champions Trophy into the bargain.
When it’s going to be your day, you know it’s absolutely, definitely going to be your day: a fielder drops the catch after all (being stood as he was in blinding sunshine) and even then the ball refuses to come down. It was Ishan Kishan who tried the party trick, running toward the ball and throwing himself forward to snare it — only for his approach to hit the deck hard enough to push it back out of his hands as he immediately followed with a headplant while his cap slipped from his crown and overhiseyes. Somehow the ball got stuck between his chin and an arm, and that was how Rachin Ravindra’s brief innings came to a close. New Zealand’s innings was only 19 balls old, and they were already two wickets down, though the only thing stopping the party from beginning was that it had been under way for five hours or so.
The tournament co-hosts were perhaps making hostages of themselves to fortune when they revealed as the tournament anthem a song called Feel the Thrill, which is built around the repeated lyric: “This is our year.” But it has come to pass. This was their tournament, held (mostly) in front of their people, and they would not be denied.
This World Cup has had four 250-plus scores and India have featured in three of them. Their total here was one less than they had against Zimbabwe in the Super 8s stage and two more than what they scored against England in the semi‑finals, but three extraordinary things about it were its tonnage, that fact that its tonnage was a bit of a disappointment.
They played themselves in for a couple of overs, during which it was plain neither of their openers seemed remotely inclined to take any risks. Then they switched gears, going from pootle to brutal in a heartbeat. At the end of the sixth over they were on 92 without loss and had matched the highest powerplay total in World Cup history.
Jacob Duffy, who returned to the team having not played since the end of the opening group stage, went for 15 in his first over. Lockie Ferguson threw down three wides and conceded 24; Matt Henry three wides, 21 and so on for a bit.
All of India’s top three batters cruised to half-centuries with Abhishek Sharma was the first to the milestone off 18 deliveries but a moment later steered Ravindra’s opening ball of the night into Tim Seifert’s gloves. Sanju Samson hoicked a pedestrian 33 and Kishan reached his half-century in 23 balls. By the time teams took drinks after 14 over, with India at 191 for one and Samson having deposited each of the last three balls into the stands, thoughts had shifted to a score beyond that mythical mark of 300.
The short layoff interrupted India’s momentum, however, and for the next five overs there were two boundaries scored — and four wickets lost. Amid the mayhem, and as if to highlight the bewildering randomness of this form, Jimmy Neesham delivered a bad over that yielded one run and three wickets.
Samson was 89 off 46 when he hoisted a full toss down the ground and was caught at long‑on. Another full toss yielded another catch at long-on, Kishan on 54 off 25. Then Neesham went back to short and wide to captain Suryakumar Yadav, who played a massive overhead lift through the deep backward square leg on account of Ravindra taking an extraordinary dive catch for a golden duck.
From there the scoring slowed for a bit, ending when Shivam Dube took his score from two off two at the start of the final over to 26 off eight at its conclusion.
India’s batting effort was eerily similar to their innings in the semi-final, so New Zealand’s had to be too: the openers had blasted 158 between them in triumphing over South Africa, Finn Allen a ludicrous 33-ball century and with behaviour like that anything is possible. But Allen went in the third over for just nine and their next three batters added up to that meagre total between them.
With that unfolding around him Seifert’s buoyant half-century was sure to be irrelevant, as were a couple of shoddy drops by Dube and Hardik Pandya. Bumrah, as mesmerizing as ever, took three wickets with beautiful slow yorkers and was the man of the match. A bad final, but this is great champions.
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