New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner admitted that his side was outplayed by India in the final of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, while praising the hosts for their dominant performance in front of a packed home crowd.
Blistering performances by left-handed batter Ishan Kishan and captain Suryakumar Yadav, and a cameo from all-rounder Shivam Dube helped India to thrash New Zealand by seven wickets in a high-scoring contest at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium on Friday.
Both Virat and Santner have had brilliant CT 2025 campaigns. While Virat is the fourth-highest run-getter with 217 runs at an average of over 72 with a century and fifty each, Santner has taken seven wickets at an average of 27.71, with best figures of 3/43.
Despite Kane Williamson's fighting knock, Kiwis fell into a brilliant, well-planned spin choke unleashed by trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja as India beat NZ by 44 runs to finish their group stage with three wins in three games. India will face Australia in the semi
Indian batters got the taste of their own medicine as the Kiwi spin attack led by Mitchell Santner, who took 13 wickets in the match, trapped the hosts in their own spin trap and defeated India by 113 runs to secure the series 2-0 with a game to go.