AHMEDABAD: Co-hosts and defending champions India beat New Zealand by 95 runs in the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 at a packed Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
Batting first, the team posted 255 for 5 in 20 overs thanks to fifties from their top order batsmen Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan.
Samson remained the top scorer with 89 off 46 balls with 8 sixes and 5 fours, followed by Kishan and Sharma with 54 and 52 respectively.
Among the New Zealand bowlers, James Neesham took 3 wickets for 46 runs in his four overs, while Rachin Ravindra and Matt Henry claimed one wicket each.
Chasing a target of 256, New Zealand’s batting struggled against India’s restrained bowling attack and piled on 159 for 19 overs despite a half-century from Tim Seifert.
The opener struggled for the Blackcaps with a 26-ball 52 with 5 sixes and 2 fours.
Apart from him, Mitchell Santner and Daryl Mitchell scored 43 and 17 runs respectively to accumulate double figures.
Jasprit Bumrah gave away just 15 runs in his four overs and claimed four wickets to spark India’s bowling. He was supported by Axar Patel with three wickets and Varun Chakraborty and Hardik Pandya with one each.
As a result, India became the first team to win three Men’s T20 World Cup titles, surpassing England and West Indies who had two each.
The Men in Blue also became the first team to successfully defend their T20 World Cup title.
Also, their win in the aforementioned tournament was their first against New Zealand in T20 World Cups and came after three defeats in the inaugural edition in 2007, 2016 and 2021.