New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner, like his predecessors, accepted defeat gracefully and conceded that India were the better side in the T20 World Cup final that took place on Sunday, March at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
India gave New Zealand a 96-run thrashing, the heaviest defeat for a team in T20 World Cup finals ever. India plundered 255 runs batting first and then cleaned up the Kiwi side for just 159.
With the victory in Ahmedabad, India won their third T20 World title while New Zealand were left waiting for their first.
Santner is proud of his team.
New Zealand were not the favourites coming into the tournament, but once again punched above their weight to make it to their second T20 World Cup final. Santner said that his team faced challenges throughout the competition but managed to come out on top every time except the final.
“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. To see a big sea of blue, obviously India were home favourites,” Santner said at the presentation ceremony after the final.
The left-arm spinning all-rounder who plays forthe Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League praised the Indian team and said that the Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav should take a lot of pride from their performance.
“Playing a home World Cup comes with a lot of pressure. But yeah, SKY 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,” he added.
The 2026 T20 World Cup adds to the list of near-misses by the Black Caps in recent ICC events.
They lost the 2025 Champions Trophy final and the 2023 Cricket World Cup semifinal, both to India. Before that, they had also lost the 2019 Cricket World Cup final to England and the 2021 T20 World Cup final to Australia. They did manage to beat India in the 2021 World Test Championship final, but their wait for a World Cup triumph continues.
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