For the first time since 2000, India and New Zealand will meet in the final of an ICC white-ball tournament. Ahmedabad will host the two teams left standing in this T20 World Cup — sides that took somewhat different routes to reach the summit clash, yet once again underlined their reputation as two of the most consistent teams in world cricket.
New Zealand began the tournament strongly, winning three of their four matches in the opening round. They stumbled slightly in the Super Eights with just one win from three games, but produced their most emphatic performance when it mattered most — crushing South Africa in the semi-final. India, meanwhile, were perfect in the first round with four wins from four. After losing their opening Super Eights match to South Africa, they bounced back with two victories before edging England by seven runs in a thrilling semi-final in Mumbai.
The finalists are familiar rivals on the big stage. They met in last year’s Champions Trophy final and currently sit first and second in the ICC ODI rankings. In T20Is, India lead the rankings while New Zealand are fourth. The two sides may differ in style and approach, but both have done what matters most in tournaments like this: win the key moments that get you to a final.
India’s campaign, however, has been far from flawless. They have dropped the most catches in the tournament — 13 — and their batting line-up has carried several players short of form. In order to persist with the struggling Abhishek Sharma, the team has at different stages left out both Sanju Samson and Rinku Singh. Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, whose influence in the semi-final victory over England was immense, the bowling has lacked consistent bite. Captain Suryakumar Yadav has also endured a difficult tournament with the bat, while some of his tactical decisions have drawn scrutiny.
Yet India find themselves exactly where they expected to be: in the final as defending champions. This team has shown little interest in how messy the journey has looked. The only thing that matters is being in the position to lift the trophy again.
When Axar Patel was asked after the semi-final whether the team looked back at narrow margins of victory or simply focused on the result, he made their approach clear. India, he said, prefer to analyse what went right and wrong in each game while keeping their eyes fixed firmly on the trophy.
New Zealand, meanwhile, arrive with momentum and a sense of opportunity. After hammering South Africa by nine wickets in the first semi-final, they are chasing their first ICC trophy in 26 years. Their last white-ball title came in the 2000 Champions Trophy, when Stephen Fleming’s side beat India in the final in Kenya.
Not long before this tournament, New Zealand had lost a bilateral T20I series in India 4–1. But ICC tournaments have often brought out their best. Mitchell Santner’s team can draw confidence from their remarkable record of six wins in their last 10 ICC semi-finals across ODI and T20 World Cups and the Champions Trophy.
Their semi-final performance in Kolkata was powered by Finn Allen, who produced one of the most extraordinary innings in T20 World Cup history. Allen smashed the fastest century in the tournament’s history, reaching three figures in just 33 balls as New Zealand chased down South Africa’s total with ease. At one stage he was 59 off 24 balls with one delivery left in the 11th over, before unleashing a breath-taking burst — 41 runs off nine balls — featuring a sequence of 6, 4, 6, 1, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4.
The innings ended South Africa’s unbeaten run of seven matches in the tournament and propelled the Black Caps into their second T20 World Cup final, after finishing runners-up to Australia in 2021.
For India, the immediate challenge will be stopping New Zealand’s explosive opening pair. Allen and Tim Seifert have been among the tournament’s most destructive batters, scoring 289 and 274 runs respectively.
New Zealand know what it feels like to reach ICC finals. The task now is figuring out how to finally finish the job — against a team that has made a habit of doing exactly that.
