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1st over: India 7-0 (Samson 7, Abhishek 0) Matt Henry has a big LBW appeal against Samson turned down second ball. Mitchell Santner calmly signals an inside-edge to nip any discussion of a review in the bud. Replays show he was right.
After four dot balls, Henry drops fractionally short and is carted effortlessly over mid-on for six. How’s that for a first scoring stroke in a World Cup final?
Matt Henry will open the bowling to the in-form Sanju Samson and the out-of-form Abhishek Sharma. Let’s play!
MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, India’s T20 World Cup-winning captains in 2007 and 2024, bring the trophy onto the field ahead of the national anthems. It’s almost time for the 2026 final to begin.
One New Zealand cricketer already has reason to remember Sunday 8 March 2026: Central Districts seamer Brett Randell took five wickets in five balls against Northern Districts, the first time that has ever happened in a first-class match.
Team news
India are unchanged. New Zealand bring in a seamer, Jacob Duffy, for a spinner, Cole McConchie.
India Abhishek, Samson (wk), Kishan, Suryakumar (c), Tilak, Hardik, Dube, Axar, Arshdeep, Varun, Bumrah.
New Zealand Seifert (wk), Allen, Ravindra, Phillips, Chapman, Mitchell, Santner (c), Neesham, Duffy, Henry, Ferguson.
New Zealand win the toss and bowl
“It looks a pretty good pitch – I think there will be a lot of runs in it,” says Mitchell Santner. “We know India have a powerful line-up so we’ll try and restrict them to a chaseable score.”
Suryakumar Yadav says India would have batted first, as they did to adequate effect against England on Wednesday.
Simon Burnton
The Narendra Modi Stadium is a spectacular, enormous dome, the largest cricket ground in the world. Tonight it will contain 130,000 people, the vast majority clad in India’s blue, and one ghost that terrifies them all.
This was supposed to be the site of India’s coronation as 50-over world champions in November 2023. But on an awkward surface, later rated average by the International Cricket Council, their batters struggled and Australia beat them comfortably.
Just 28 months later India return to play another World Cup final, in a different format, and seeking a very different outcome. “The circle has come to the same stadium that we left in 2023,” said Suryakumar Yadav. “Of course there are nerves. There will be butterflies in the stomach. But if there’s no pressure there’s no fun. So I’m very excited, and I’m sure the whole of India is excited.”
Preamble
After 29 days, 53 matches, 685 wickets, 753 sixes, seven centuries and two Super Overs, it’s time for the T20 World Cup final between India and New Zealand. One take on the tournament is that 29 days, 53 matches etc. is a helluva lot of cricket just to find out who plays India in the final. Another is that, for reasons too many and varied to detail in a humble preamble, this has been among the most enjoyable T20 World Cups of all.
How we ultimately remember the competition will be partly shaped by what happens in Ahmedabad this afternoon. An Indian victory feels predictable, even that is unfair to both teams. A New Zealand win – which would be their first in a men’s World Cup after three finals defeats in 2015, 2019 and 2021 – would be the choice of many neutrals and most romantics.
India can also make history by becoming the first team to retain the men’s T20 World Cup and the first to win it three times. Victory today would also give them three ICC white-ball tournaments in a row, following the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and last year’s Champions Trophy.
It’s easy to think it’s easy when a team has as much talent as India, but it’s not. The last World Cup final to be played in Ahmedabad, when the chutzpah of Travis Head silenced an entire country, was a reminder of that. Whoever wins the World Cup will have earned it – not just today, but throughout the last month.
