Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel have put India in a commanding spot in the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 final against New Zealand. Set a daunting target of 256 to win the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, New Zealand were left in disarray as they were reduced to 88/5 after 10 overs.
Finn Allen, the hero of New Zealand's emphatic semi-final win over South Africa, was the first batter to be dismissed as he got caught at long-on by Tilak Varma off the bowling of Axar Patel. Allen who hammered a hundred against the Proteas departed after scoring just nine off seven balls.
Pace ace Bumrah struck off the first ball of his spell as he forced a top edge from the bat of Rachin Ravindra and the ball was safely pouched by Ishan Kishan at deep square leg. Ravindra scored only one off two balls. Axar struck for a second time as he clean-bowled Glenn Phillips for five on the fifth ball of the fifth over.
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Hardik Pandya got Mark Chapman clean bowled for three as New Zealand's problems compounded.
Tim Seifert counter-punched with a half-century and made New Zealand believe that they were in with a chance. But, Varun Chakravarthy, who has endeared a poor tournament thus far, killed New Zealand's hopes as he got Seifert caught in the deep. The right hander walked back after scoring 52 in 26 balls.
Earlier India scored 255/5, the highest score in a T20 World Cup final, on the back of half-centuries by Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan.
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