India crushed New Zealand for a historic second consecutive and third T20 World Cup title in a mismatch 96 run champagne thrust with Sanju Samson, prevailing in a Player of the Series 46 ball 89, and their fallen big gun Abhishek Sharma rising from the slumber in a cometh the hour, cometh the man timely 52 off 21 scorcher to the tournament fastest half century in silencing critics as Tim Santner’s apparent suicidal call to send in India after winning the toss paled off in a hell fire shattered world cup dream devastation in a 4 for 15 Jasprit Player of the Match led 159 routing in response to a world record score of 255 for 5 in yesterday’s final at the Narendra Modi Stadium at Ahemadabad.
Indeed, the massive pre-match final turned out to be a damp squib as the Black Caps literally lost it before a ball was bowled given a tournament run up ofū the chasers from the super eight stage including England taking bad beatings.
Verily, India reigned in the big cup, big show vein to beckoning history before them as Sanju Samson crowned himself the willow fireworks hero following super eight scores of 97* and 89 versus the West Indies and England to a bludgeoning top score bathing the night sky lit up by the high tech wonder of floodlights in 8 sixes and 5 across.
If his innings was the culmination to a man shut out for bad form walking out from the cold to becoming India’s unlikely hero in silencing home critics who had screamed for his blood, the final marked the reawakening of Abhishek Sharma, India’s most spoken of world No 1 rated batsman in the tournament who came with a bang to silencing his critics that form is temporary, but class is permanent. The 98 first wicket bonding off 7.1 overs set it up for the Samson-Kishan Ishan second wicket 105 off 47 savaging as India’s frontline rhythemed the avalanche. Kishan true to India’s new found potential ably compensating the void left by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, his 54 off 25 to the cause.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav was the one first ball out blemish as Shivam Dube stepped in the thunder of 26 off 8 in the fireworks rip off of the Kiwi attack.
New Zealand’s cave in was signalled as early as the removal of their tournament fastest hundred world record batter Finn Allen’s tame dismissal for 9, a victim of Axar Patel in holing out to Tilak Varma. It signalled the rot as wickets fell like nine pins, but for upfront Tim Seifert’s lost cause 52 off 26, the only other contribution to speak of the skipper Santner’s 43 off 35 in that final surrender before the furious Bumrah magic supplemented by Patel’s 3 for 27.
India’s eventual champagne third cup hurrah magnified, the home invincibility of a pack that had stood the test of every strength to the crowning of cricket’s short format realism of ‘We are the Champions’ as the famous celebratory song goes.
India 255 for 5 (Samson 89, Kishan 54, Abhishek 52, Neesham 3-46) beat New Zealand 159 (Seifert 52, Santner 43, Bumrah 4-15, Axar 3-27) by 96 runs
