India crush New Zealand to defend World Cup title

India became the first team to retain the men’s Twenty20 World Cup title after handing out a 96-run demolition of New Zealand in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.

India also became the first team to lift the title three times, while New Zealand’s wait for a maiden white-ball World Cup continues.

The victory will taste particularly sweet for India since it came at a venue where they were beaten by Australia in the final of the 50-overs World Cup three years ago.

Put in to bat, India capitalised on a 98-run opening stand between Sanju Samson (89) and Abhishek Sharma (52) to rack up 255-5.

Number three Ishan Kishan smashed 54 but James Neesham bowled a three-wicket over to apply the brakes on India’s scoring rate towards the end of the innings.

Chasing such a daunting target, New Zealand could not recover from a top-order collapse and were all out for 159 in 19 overs despite defiant knocks by Tim Seifert (52) and Mitchell Santner (43).

“This feels extremely special because I’ve played one final in my home venue but couldn’t win that one, but today I won,” said India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, whose 4-15 fetched him player of the match award.

“I knew the wicket was a flat one so had to use all my experience.”

Samson, who smashed his third successive 80-plus knock, was adjudged player of the tournament.

Earlier, wary of having to bowl with a hard-to-grip, dew-soaked ball later in the evening, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner elected to field.

New Zealand used four different bowlers in the first four overs but could not stop India from milking 92 without losing a wicket after the six powerplay overs.

BATTING CARNAGE

Rachin Ravindra dismissed Abhishek with his first ball to bring relief to the New Zealand camp, ending the opener’s 21-ball knock that included three sixes.

With Samson continuing in the same vein and Kishan joining him in a batting carnage, there was hardly any respite for New Zealand.

Both found boundaries with remarkable regularity as India reached the 200-mark in the 15th over.

Samson, who smacked Ravindra for three sixes in a row, was finally caught in the deep off James Neesham, who also removed Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in a three-wicket over.

India could not maintain the tempo after the departures of their set batters and yet comfortably breached the 250-mark.

New Zealand’s top order wilted early in their chase and they could never really recover after being reduced to 47-3 inside five overs.

Finn Allen, who smashed a 33-ball hundred in the semi-final against South Africa, got a reprieve when Shivam Dube dropped him in the first over from Arshdeep Singh.

Allen could not capitalise on it though, and holed out against spinner Axar Patel in the third over.

Bumrah dismissed Ravindra with his first delivery and Axar got rid of Glenn Phillips to rattle New Zealand.

Stymied by lack of partnerships and faced with a spiralling required run-rate, Seifert had to go for the jugular but it did not pay off.

Spinner Varun Chakravarthy had Seifert caught in the deep as New Zealand lost the top half of their batting for 72 to effectively drop out of the hunt.

Santner, dropped on 26, went on to make 43 but India had the match in the bag by then.