Ahmedabad: More than a billion pairs of eyes on the game. Eleven men tasked with winning one last match that will send a cricket-mad country into raptures. The pressure will be prodigious when Suryakumar Yadav and his boys in blue set out to defend their T20 World Cup title against nippy New Zealand at the gigantic Narendra Modi Stadium here on Sunday night.
The teams have had contrasting runs to the final though. India have lost only one match in the tournament, New Zealand two. The hosts suffered an early scare against South Africa and then won all their games in the Super Eight before putting up a mountain of runs against England in the semifinal that eventually went a bit close.
Meanwhile, the Kiwis sneaked into the semifinal on better run-rate before cracking the whip against all-winning South Africa to hand them their first defeat — a thorough thrashing — in the semifinal. To chase down 169 in under 13 overs for the loss of just one wicket must have done a world of good to their confidence as openers Tim Seifert and 33-ball centurion Finn Allen literally shut the South Africans out.
With the Ahmedabad wicket poised to aid batters, they would be licking their lips at the prospect of another run feast. The two have done the bulk of scoring for New Zealand in this tournament. Allen is the third highest run-getter in the current Cup with 289 from seven innings.
The Black Caps’ batting line-up also boasts of some big hitters who can whack the ball a long distance. Glenn Phillips, Cole McConchie, Mark Chapman and Daryl Mitchell are dangerous floaters in the ranks. Then there is Rachin Ravindra, who has been making an allround contribution. The left-arm spinner has 11 wickets, third highest in the tournament so far and has done decently with the bat for an average of 32.
New Zealand’s bowling will also revolve around Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and captain Mitchell Santner. They will have to contend with India’s firepower. Sanju Samson has turned a new page and has scripted the team’s previous two wins. He is scoring fast as well and has the second best strike rate among batters at 201.73, behind New Zealand’s Allen (203.52). Ishan Kishan, Surya, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma too have come good and have been among the runs.
However, questions whirl around Abhishek Sharma’s place in the team after the ‘explosive’ opener seems to have lost the connection to his switch. Ditto with mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who has gone off-colour of late. The 34-year-old has conceded 64 and 40 runs from his four overs in the last two games even as he is the joint highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 13 against his name.
So captain Surya will once again turn to the brilliant Jasprit Bumrah and his pace partner Arshdeep Singh to deliver upfront before banking on Axar Patel, Pandya and Dube to apply brakes in the middle.
Sunday’s game will be the third occasion the two teams have met in an ICC final. The first was at the 2021 World Test Championship in England which New Zealand won. India avenged that defeat in Dubai, at the Champions Trophy last year. The Ahmedabad encounter also makes them the first teams to clash in the finals of Test, ODI as well as T20 formats.
However, India have bad memories of this ground. The last time they played an ICC final here — the 2023 ODI World Cup — they were brushed aside by Australia, who won with six wickets and seven overs to spare. This time they are up against their neighbours from Down Under.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
