Ahmedabad: New Zealand captain Mitch Santner acknowledged his team wasn’t at their best as they faced a dominant India in the 2026 T20 World Cup final on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
However, Santner added that he remained proud of his players’ efforts despite the 96-run defeat at the hands of India.
On a mixed soil pitch, New Zealand bowlers were taken to the cleaners as India posted a massive 255/5 before the visitors were bowled out for 159 in 19 overs. Santner also thanked the Blackcaps fans back home for their well-wishes, as New Zealand again missed out on a white-ball World Cup trophy.
“It’s thanks to the fans back home for following us. I might have to go to work, obviously, without a trophy, but we’ve obviously great support back home, and we get great support here as well.
“It was awesome to play in front of so many people that obviously had a lot of blue shirts on and not many black shirts, but again it’s always a great occasion and it’s always cool for us to play in front of so many people. It obviously wasn’t our greatest effort as we came up against a very good team, but I am thanking the fans back home,” said Santner in the post-game press conference.
The Blackcaps had defeated South Africa by nine wickets in the semi-finals in Kolkata to reach the decider with confidence but were undone by India’s mighty batting power and Jasprit Bumrah’s incisive bowling.
“I guess it’s not ideal, losing semis and finals, but like I said the other day, you get to this situation, and you’re coming up against teams that are also playing very good cricket. India in a final, and India is always going to be a challenge. We knew that definitely the underdogs going into the game.
“They showed their class again with that batting performance. Then, everything kind of has to go well when you’re chasing 250. Losing the wickets in the Powerplay is always a challenge. I think that was the tale of the day, was the two power plays. I think we were three for 40 odd and they were 90 odd for none,” he added.
New Zealand will now turn their attention to preparing for next year’s ODI World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, which is followed by the 11th edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup that they will co-host alongside Australia in 2028.
“It’s probably quite far away that I think, so we will reflect as a group over the next few days of, I guess, this tournament and what it looked like. I think to make it to a final is obviously a pretty good effort from the boys, and they should be very proud of their efforts throughout this tournament.”
“Then I guess the next kind of major event one day is in South Africa; like you said, it’s going to play slightly different to what we expect here. Then our next T20 World Cup is in Australia and New Zealand, so it’ll be nice to get a few fans and the crowd there in familiar conditions.
“That’s one of the hardest things is to win a World Cup in your country. So for India to do that, this obviously comes with a lot of added pressure, home fans. So for them to win this trophy, they should be very proud of that,” he concluded.
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Caption: New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips during the third T20I match between India and New Zealand at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, in Guwahati on Sunday, January 25, 2026. (Photo: IANS)
–IANS
