Chennai: Afghanistan beat Canada by a comfortable 82 runs to win the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday.
Chasing a tough target of 201 runs, Canada’s batting unit could only manage 118/8 in 20 overs, but it was a gutsy 53-run partnership between Harsh Thackeray and Saad Bin Zafar for the fifth wicket.
Thacker was the top scorer with a blistering 24-ball 30, while Saad scored 28 off 26 balls.
Apart from them, only openers Yuvraj Samra (17), skipper Dilpreet Bajwa (13) and middle-order batsman Nicholas Kirton (10) managed to score double figures against a disciplined Afghanistan bowling led by experienced all-rounder Mohammad Nabi.
Captain Rashid Khan took 2 wickets to support Nabi, while Mujeeb ur Rehman and Asmatullah Omarzai took one wicket each.
Canada captain Dilpreet Bajwa’s decision to field first backfired as Afghanistan’s batting unit, led by Chadran, amassed 200/4 in 20 overs.
Afghanistan got off to a good start to their innings with their opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sadran putting on 47 runs in a batting powerplay until Jaskaran Singh was dismissed in the third ball of the sixth over.
Jaskaran struck again in the same over, nipping Gulbad for one run and reducing Afghanistan to 49/2 at the powerplay mark.
Following the back-and-forth, Sedikulla Atal joined Sadran in the middle and the duo put on a 95-run partnership for the third wicket to put Afghanistan in a commanding position.
The crucial stand eventually culminated in the 16th over when Atal fell victim to Jaskaran and returned after scoring 44 off 32 balls with the help of two sixes and several fours.
Chatran then put on a 32-run partnership for the fourth wicket when he was dismissed by Dillon Heiliger in the last over after scoring 13 off seven balls.
The right-handed opener shared a one-sided 25-run partnership with Darwish Rasooli (four not out) and scored an unbeaten 95 off 56 balls with 7 fours and 5 sixes to help Afghanistan clear the 200-run barrier.
For his monumental performance, Chadran was adjudged Man of the Match.
Jaskaran led the wickets for Canada with three wickets, but the price came as he conceded 52 runs in his four overs, while Heiliger struck once.