<\/p>\n
Sanju Samson\u2019s blistering 89 off 46 balls helped India rack up a massive 255-5 against New Zealand in the T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The in-form Samson, who hit 97 not out and 89 in his previous two innings, hit five fours and eight sixes to thrill a crowd of over 100,000 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.<\/p>\n
India are looking to become the first team to retain the trophy, the first to win it on home soil and the first to claim a third world T20 crown.<\/p>\n
Samson\u2019s opening stand of 98 with Abhishek Sharma, who hit 52 off 21 balls, laid the platform for the second-highest total of this edition as India surpassed their 256 against Zimbabwe in the Super Eights.<\/p>\n
Put in to bat first, Abhishek waited for an over before he launched a batting blitz, and Samson joined in to flay the opposition attack to all parts of the ground.<\/p>\n
India raced to 92 in the first six overs of powerplay when only two fielders are allowed outside the inner circle.<\/p>\n
Rachin Ravindra broke the stand with his left-arm spin to send back Abhishek caught behind after the opener reached his second fifty of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Samson was joined by Ishan Kishan, who made 54, and the two once again demolished New Zealand\u2019s bowling.<\/p>\n
Samson reached his third successive fifty and changed gears to hit Ravindra for three straight sixes.<\/p>\n
Jimmy Neesham pulled things back for New Zealand with three wickets in one over. He removed Samson, Kishan and skipper Suryakumar Yadav for a duck \u2013 the last two on successive balls.<\/p>\n
But Shivam Dube finished with a flourish, blasting an unbeaten 26 off eight balls as he hit Neesham for three fours and two sixes in the 20th over.<\/p>\n
New Zealand will need a record chase in their attempt to win their first World Cup title.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sanju Samson\u2019s blistering 89 off 46 balls helped India rack up a massive 255-5 against New Zealand in the T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The in-form Samson, who hit 97 not out and 89 in his previous two innings, hit five fours and eight sixes to thrill a crowd of over 100,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2026\/03\/08204040620ccb0.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}